Pruning roses is a necessary but somewhat difficult task.
Pruning is the act of getting rid of dead and damaged material and training the new growth to follow in the correct outward facing direction. That just means that you are training them to grow facing outside the shrub or bush. This gives your roses the correct amount of circulating air so they can thrive.
When to prune:
- Pruning roses in the early spring, just after the snow melts is best. However, you want to do it before any new growth appears.
Equipment needed:
- Hand shears are the best tool for pruning the smaller branches. Loppers are best for the branches that are thicker or the thickness of a pencil. Always wear a heavy pair of rose gloves to avoid the thorns.
- You should use bypass pruners that work like scissors and not the anvil types because the anvils crush the stems and make the roses more available to diseases.
Here is a list of the proper techniques for pruning roses.
- Soak your rose pruning shears in equal parts of water and bleach. This will help to protect your roses from diseases and insects.
- Get rid of the winter protection that you set up like cones, burlap, and mounded soil.
- Get rid of the dead wood first. (That would be the black wood that is black inside as well as out).
- Next, you want to get rid of any stems that are thinner than a pencil.
- Cut all the branches that cross or overlap each another because these are often diseased or may become so.
- Keep the remaining healthy branches. These are often dark green. Try to make your roses fluted or vase shaped, with an open center, and keep them from touching or overlapping one another.
- Cut your healthy canes to be about one to four feet long or whatever size that you prefer.
- Cut you roses properly so that they stay healthy. Cut at a 45 degree angle.
