I’ve been away from the computer because my honey was here this weekend and 1) I wanted to spend quality time with him and 2) he hogged both of my computers all weekend – at least his computer stuff is the kind that needs to get started and then left alone.
I went to an excellent free rose pruning class this weekend at Unique Nursery in Yucca Valley. (Next weekend is his tree pruning class, Saturday at noon.) I inherited 17 rose bushes when I bought this house and I hadn’t the faintest idea how to prune them. Now I do – here are my notes.
This is the before picture of the patch in front of my office window. Scraggly and overgrown don’t you agree?
The main idea is to cut the roses back to a “birdcage” frame of three to five healthy canes. You cut back to 18 inches of the base for most tea roses and floribundas (if it sounds like I am making it up, I very well may be…) This will lead to a radically brutal prune job that may look like this after picture:
Gulp. I hope they all grow back as vigorously as Mike at the nursery promises.
First, you need to trim the bush down from the top to within several feet of the base. Also, begin trimming anything that is growing from the center of the bush or in toward the center of the bush. You don’t want any branches crossing over; all the side branches poking out get lopped off too.
Walk around the bush and start deciding which will be the main canes for your “birdcage,” by that I mean a shape like your fingers upturned as if you are going to squeeze somebody’s bottom. The canes will be like your fingers or the spokes of the birdcage.
When you have cut away the all the extra, look carefully at the remaining canes. You will cut them at about 18 inches from the base but just above a viable bud. The bud might be obvious or they might look like a very slight swollen horizontal split. Cut about 1/4 inch above the bud at a diagonal. Cutting at a diagonal prevents moisture from settling on the cut and prevents mildew. This pic is burry, but you get the idea.
If there is no bud, you can cut above a leaf if there is one. Apparently a leaf with five leaflets is the best sort to choose, because it is stronger than one with three or seven leaflets. Don’t ask why; Mike says so. This is one leaf.
Which ever direction the bud or leaf is growing will determine the direction of the new branch, so be sure to pick a bud or leaf growing away from the center of the plant.
Hmmm. I think that’s it for now. By the way, best not to wear yoga pants that expose your ankles while pruning, lest you want ankles that sting for days afterwards in the shower…
