rose pruning

Rose Pruning – My Crazy Experiment

Sandra

Rose pruning timeWith the days getting shorter and autumn just around the corner I am now able to give you the report I promised about the results of my crazy rose pruning experiment.

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. Read more →

My Rose Pruning. A Success or Fiasco?

Sandra

A Pruned RoseI have always pruned my own roses. I like to prune lightly and I always prune to an outside eye.

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: Read more →

When to Prune Roses – A few tips

Sandra

Pruning tools for rosesIt’s often tricky to decide what is the best time to start pruning your roses.

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! Read more →

Spring is in the Air and it’s Rose Pruning Time!

Sandra

While folk in the northern hemisphere are trying to keep cool in the heat of summer, here in the southern hemisphere we are still feeling the bite of cold winter mornings.  But the days are crisp and sunny with a promise of warmer weather.

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