You may remember that last winter I told you about my rose pruning effort and how I had engaged a professional rose pruner to help me.

The thought of pruning all my roses was a little intimidating at the time – but if truth be told I suspect that I was simply too lazy.

Well, pruning day arrived and the professional pruner brought some tools and some loppers and proceeded to lop off my roses in a most frightening manner.

All I could do was to stand by and watch helplessly – and hope that he knew more about pruning than I did.

I was wrong. I know now that I knew better. Much better.

At this point I can only refer to the lines of Elizabeth Barrett Browning because they explain exactly how I felt:

“High on the shore sat the great god Pan
While turbidly flowed the river;
And hacked and hewed as a great god can,
With his hard bleak steel at the patient reed,
Till there was not a sign of the leaf indeed
To prove it fresh from the river.”

I return to my story.

I had told him how high I wanted my bushes to be and he lopped them off to the required height and quite a bit more for good measure.

He didn’t even prune to an outgoing eye as this was regarded as last century retro thinking.

Oh well.  He was the experienced expert so I left him, made myself a cup of tea and peeped through the kitchen window to view the mayhem.

He finished the job in about an hour and a half – and to give him  some small credit – it would have taken me a week and a half to get my rose garden completely pruned.

OK so what were the final results of the rose pruning?

Well there was no major damage to report except for the massacre of my lovely “Double Delight” which took a real beating.  Such a beating in fact, that she still looks sad and hasn’t recovered her earlier vigour.

I can promise you that this pruning season I will tend her myself and prune very lightly indeed and only remove the dead bits. In another year she should recover.

But I’ll tell you one thing.  Never again will I let anyone near my roses.  Even if it takes me a month to prune them myself, I will do a few roses every day and get through the task my way.

A lesson learnt. Don’t presume that all so-called rose experts know a lot more than you do. Sometimes you as the garden owner have a better and more sympathetic understanding of your own roses.

My roses have grown well and I always buy a few new ones each year so my rose bushes have grown considerably both  in number and in size.

Not surprisingly, when pruning time came around this year, the prospect of pruning them myself was a little daunting.

In the past, I have always spread my rose pruning over a few days – a system that made my job a lot easier. But the downside is that it affects the blooming time if you prune at different times. This year I didn’t want to stagger the pruning as I want to have a big flush of roses in October.

In addition to this, my Mr Lincoln has grown to an enormous height – about 17 -20 feet and the canes are not canes but veritable tree trunks. The thought of pruning this monster was more than a little daunting.

So these are all my reasons for deciding to call in:

A Professional Rose Pruner

Well he arrived with all the necessary paraphernalia and I sat down with a cup of tea and watched him in silent triumph! This was the way to do it!

Fantastic! He went through the whole lot in about an hour and a half. He lopped off all the heavier canes in a matter of seconds. I was very impressed.

However!

When I checked the results after he left it seemed as if he had used a hedge cutter on my roses. It looked like a massacre. A fiasco. My beautiful rose canes had been chopped off mercilessly.

For a full week I couldn’t look at the rose bushes. I didn’t even inspect them to see if any shoots had appeared. And I swore I would never go the lazy route again.

Another however!

It is now a month later and spring has officially arrived. My roses have sent out shoots in all directions and I’m relieved to report that everything looks rather healthy.

With one important distinction.

In addition to the new leaves that are sprouting, most of the rose bushes are now sending out marvelous red shoots from their bases.

These will be the new canes that are every rose grower’s dream. In fact I love to see shoots like these even more than the flowers themselves because they hold so much promise for the new season.

So it remains to be seen if this was indeed a pruning fiasco or a fortunate mistake on my part.

It’s just remotely possible that this was a mistake that I may wish to repeat next year.

I’ll keep you posted about my rose pruning experiment.

When to prune roses depends on so many things: the weather, the location, the variety of rose and so on.

But as a rule of thumb,  I generally wait till the end of July until the danger of late frosts is past. During July, you never can be quite sure of the weather.

The problem with pruning too early is that the new growth is very tender and frost can kill off all the baby leaf shoots overnight and that would be a setback for the rose bush, causing die-back and a host of other problems.

Optimally, it’s best to prune just before the roses feel the first growing surge of spring.  As you know, gardening has a lot to do with feeling!

Meanwhile, I’ll sniff the air and wait for the first whiff of spring to alert me to “spring” into action!

But right now it’s a good time to sharpen shears, take out my elbow-length pruning gloves and check my rose bushes for fattening leaf buds on the canes.

Fattening Leaf Buds

A rose leaf bud starting to fatten

As soon as you see the leaf buds starting to swell it means that they are getting ready to burst into young leaves.

I don’t really go by dates.  Some gardeners insist that you should be pruning roses by the 15^th of July. But I think it’s more important to take a close look at the conditions in your own garden.

If your rose bushes still look as if they are in deep hibernation then it’s a pity to wake them up so ruthlessly!  It’s much better to wait until they show signs of stirring.

Also I still have plenty to do because we have a lot of compost at the bottom of the garden from last year’s leaves so I will be incorporating some of that into the garden beds.

What about a gardening service for pruning?

Every year we somehow collect a few more rose bushes. The result is that it’s becoming more and more difficult to prune them all.

This year I have been thinking about asking a gardening service to do my pruning.  But the problem is that I’m so fussy about my roses that I don’t know if I can trust anyone to prune my roses for me.

The idea would be to try to find a pruning expert I can trust – which isn’t always possible. The problem is, even if I could find such an expert, I know I would hover around suspiciously and offer my unwanted advice while trying to disguise my anxiety!

Light Pruning

I prefer to prune lightly. I know there’s a school of thought that advises heavy pruning. These people like shorter bushes so that the roses are easier to reach for picking – but that is a matter of choice, I suppose.

I don’t like to make the rose bushes suffer more than is necessary. I think they need a strong infrastructure to prepare themselves for the new growing season.

I like big rose bushes that look happy and healthy rather than the chopped-down versions that have to battle so hard to send out new canes.

If you have any preferences about rose pruning do share your experience and knowledge here! There is always something to learn.

The answer is quite simple. The best time to pick roses is when the roses are at their best.

The worst time to pick roses

Roses, like people go through periods of relaxation and times of stress.

Their worst stress is when the sun is beating down on them and they are thirsting for water.

And because they are feeling stressed and miserable they may even be drooping their heads. This is to avoid the direct rays of the sun.

This is clearly not the best time to pick your roses.  If you do, they will simply  collapse on you and fade away very quickly in your vase.

The best time to pick roses

The best time to pick roses is when they are feeling fresh and happy.

• This will be early in the morning with the dew still on their faces.  They will be standing tall and erect and this is undoubtedly the best time to pick them.

• Another good time to pick your roses is towards evening after they have had a good drink of water and feel refreshed.  They will then have recovered from the heat of the day and will have regained their loveliness.

• Remember to take a bucket of cold water with you when picking and submerge the roses almost up to their necks in water.  After that you will be able to arrange the roses in vases without having to worry about any drooping heads.

If you follow these few simple guidelines your roses will last much longer in the vase.

 Click the pink rose to discover the secret only professional rose growers know:

Secrets of Roses

As the weather becomes hotter, deadheading seems to be forgotten.  This is a pity because there are several reasons why we should deadhead our roses regularly.

What is deadheading?

Deadheading is what it’s name implies.  It simply means removing the dead rose head from the bush. Some people just pull the spent rose off the bush but this isn’t the best way as it leaves a naked stalk on the plant which tends to die back.

An easy way to deadhead roses

I have found an easy and effective way to deadhead my roses. But I only do this when the roses have been newly watered and the sap has risen well up into the stems.

To deadhead I hold the base of the stalk between the thumb and forefinger of my left hand and then with a quick one-two back and forth movement with my right hand I snap off the rose head neatly together with the short stalk that holds it up. In this way all the leaves are preserved and the rose will soon flower again.

Why should we deadhead roses?

• Firstly, the rose bushes look much neater when we remove the spent roses from the bush. A rose bush looks tatty when there are fading roses among the buds and full blown flowers.

• Secondly the rose needs every bit of energy, food and water for its growth and future flowering ability.  A great deal of energy goes into the making of rose hips.  If you allow the spent heads to remain on the bush all the energy is diverted from the growth of your rose bush towards the development of seeds.

• If you remove spent roses from the bush, the rose is encouraged to flower more frequently by replacing the flowers that you have removed.

How to Plant and Care for your Rose Garden

If you need some ideas to help you plan your rose garden here are some tips that should be quite helpful.

• Before you go out to buy your new roses it’s important to decide where you want to put them first.  If you only have a small space reserved for roses consider how many rose bushes you can plant within that space. This may seem elementary but believe me when you get to the nursery you’ll be tempted to buy more than you can use.  It’s happened to me many a time.

• It’s also important to think about the colours that you want to have in your garden.  I’m always amazed by gardeners who will plant a row of white icebergs against a white wall.  You’ll be surprised how often something like this happens.

• It’s a good idea to plant a standard rose or any tall growing rose in the center of a bed and then to surround it with a mass of low growing floribundas in a different colour beneath it. For example I planted five Amarula Profusions under a white iceberg and I’m waiting to see what that will look like in a few weeks. It should be stunning.

• Sometimes individual roses can get lost or overlooked. So try to plant a few roses of the same variety next to each other.  This is always effective as it gives a good, solid splash of color to the garden.

• A very important point to consider is the eventual height that the rose bush will reach.  You don’t want to mix low growing roses with tall varieties indiscriminately.  Small bushes can get lost and overshadowed by stronger growing varieties.

• Remember to plant your tall growing roses at the back of the bed and place the shorter bushes towards the front of the bed.

• Underplant your roses with a carpet of white alyssum or candytuft for a stunning effect. If you prefer a cloud of blue, you could use blue lobelia for a striking contrast. These annuals have shallow rooting systems and they won’t disturb your roses.

• Also consider planting some specially fragrant roses near the pathway so that you can enjoy the perfume while you admire your roses

With these few tips in mind you will be ready to tackle that nursery.  Good luck. If you have any other good tips to plan a rose garden feel free to share them in the comments below.

Whenever I visit a nursery, I tend to go home with roses that I didn’t have the faintest intention of buying.  And it happens every time.

My problem has always been deciding which roses not to choose because I love them all.  Roses of every size, shape and colour.

Trying to select roses from a rose catalogue doesn’t help much either because all the pictures are so tempting.

So I find it helpful to draw up a list of qualities that I want from my new roses before I hit the rose nurseries.  But before doing this I run through a few questions like the following:

• Am I going to go for perfume this time?
• Do I want a particular colour?
• Do I need a new climber for the pergola?
• Do I want a few rambling roses for the bank?
• Do I want a rose for a container?
• Do I want a prolific and very free flowering low-growing floribunda?

Once I have decided what I need a particular rose for, I have a much clearer idea of what to buy.

For example if I want a bi-coloured rose with perfume I would choose Double Delight.

If I wanted a tall growing red rose to disguise a wall I would choose a row of Mr Lincoln.

I discovered my magnificent Kordes Brilliant climber by combining one or two requirements in this way. I have never seen a brilliant scarlet like this in any rose. I chose it both for its vibrant colour, its health and its ability to climb and cover an archway.

If you combine one or two requirements such as colour and purpose beforehand, it helps you to narrow down the choice.  And that is a great help when choosing new roses.

For tons of info about your roses check out:

How to Plant and Care for your Rose Garden

photo: flikr firecatstef

Add some yellow roses to your garden to bring happiness by the armful!

Yellow is a happy colour and yellow roses have always conveyed a special message of celebration.

People send them to celebrate happy occasions and to bring cheer into the lives of friends and loved ones.

You may have noticed how a patch of yellow roses can liven up a whole rose garden.

It’s as if a ray of sunlight has settled into the garden to show up all the other colours.

If you would like to grow yellow roses in your garden there one or two things to bear in mind before you go out to buy your rose bushes.

Unfortunately, yellow roses are notoriously difficult to grow successfully.  Many of them are prone to diseases such as rust and black spot.

So before you even think of visiting the rose nursery remember to consult your rose catalogue first to make sure that the yellow roses you have selected are disease free.

This is essential because when roses are in bloom at a nursery they all look wonderful.  They get specialist treatment there so you won’t see a sign of any rose disease or insect damage. Only when they are in your garden will you discover the problems.

So do your homework first before you allow yourself to be tempted.

For detailed info about growing roses check out:

How to Plant and Care for your Rose Garden

I think it’s nothing short of murder.  I don’t think that this is what nature intended and let’s face it, pruning  is not a very friendly act at the best of times.

But there are advantages to pruning and that is why we do it.  It forces the bush to recover by producing fresh long canes and show-stopping roses.

So the bottom line is that we have to hit a compromise.  Which is why I go for light pruning.

I try to keep to the original shape of the bush without cutting it down too low.  I like my rose bushes to grow tall and bushy with lots of roses – a sort of natural look.

So I cut out dead branches and trim the tree well.  I cut off all straggly growth and remove ugly crossing canes that hamper the bush.

Once the bush has been cleaned I reduce the canes by 1/3 to a half of the original height if the bush has grown too tall and straggly.

After that it’s simply a matter of caring for your rose bushes and waiting for the first leaves to sprout.

Let me know what you prefer – heavy pruning or light pruning.  I would be interested to know your reasons too.

One or two early birds have started building their nests and the sap is staring to  rise in the rose bushes.

Which means  pruning time!

The most  optimum time for pruning here is the middle towards the end of July or even in early August.

The important thing is to wait till  the eyes all along the rose canes start to look alive. Eventually the little red eye buds along the stems will peep out and begin to fatten.  Watch for this carefully because the roses need to be pruned before the eye buds on the stems burst into tiny leaflets .

I checked this morning but we have been having cold nights with frost – and the roses are still dormant.  The little side shoots are starting to bud ever so slightly  but they are not yet ready so I will hold onto my shears and wait a while before starting to  prune.

If you liked this article you may find the following articles interesting too:

Climbing Roses – How to Prune Climbing Roses
My Top Ten list of Fragrant Roses
How I chose the best Fragrant Roses for my Garden
When to Pick Roses for Fragrance