New and old gardeners alike are often perplexed on how and when they should prune their roses.
In this post, I want to share some tips and tricks for pruning your roses so you can achieve maximum impact in the garden.
What is dormant pruning?
Dormant pruning is the act of pruning a shrub or perennial during the dormant season. Typically this is in the Winter. Here in the Midwest, we usually prune our roses between February and March. Thereโs an old gardener saying to โprune when the forsythia bloomsโ, which is usually early to mid-March for me.
We like to prune before the plant wakes up because then we know it isnโt wasting a ton of energy into new leaf growth that will ultimately be cut off. Also, pruning during the cold part of the year helps prevent the spread of disease, since most diseases and pests are dormant also.
Even if you donโt prune during the ideal window, it is still important to at least try to remove some of the dead material. I have no shame in pruning like I would during the dormant season at a later date. Sometimes I get behind and the plant has already burst forth with leaves, so I try my best to prune carefully.
A little note: This article will be referencing how to prune repeat-flowering roses. Most modern roses are repeat-flowering. Once-blooming roses need to be pruned differently, however.
Why should I prune my roses?
Pruning is important because it allows you to remove all of the dead and diseased material, first and foremost. It is also important for the overall size and health of the blooms.
Typically when you prune out unnecessary canes you will see bigger blooms because the plant can focus its energy into less blooms.
This is the same concept in many orchard and vine crops! Lots of commercial growers will knock off buds and extra blooms or prune really hard so that rather than have a ton of small fruits they can have a nice harvest of very large, marketable fruits.
How to Prune Your Roses
Hereโs a breakdown of the tips and tricks for pruning roses.
- Remove the 4 DโsโDead, Diseased, Damaged, and Dysfunctional
- Reduce to the desired height.
- Open up the plant for maximum airflow.
- Use clean, sharp pruners.
- Prune climbing roses a little bit differently.
- Burn or bury rose trimmings.
Remove the 4 Dโs.
First, assess your plant. It can be very overwhelming where to start, so I would recommend either starting with removing the 4 Dโs or reducing the height. It is up to you.
Go through and remove all the canes that are completely dead so they are out of your way. Usually the dead canes will be black or gray on the outside and inside of the stem. Every once in a while you will cut into a cane that is black on the outside but still has a green pith (center). That is okayโyou probably need to remove it anyways because it is likely starting the process of death.
Next, look for any diseased stems. Usually these will have large lesions or spots on the stem.ย
If you notice any damaged stems, remove those as well. Sometimes you will only need to reduce the damaged stems in height rather than remove the whole cane. Damage can occur when canes rub up against each other or when an object like a mower has come by and nicked the cane.
Lastly, take out the dysfunctional canes. These are canes that are crossing each other and therefore will have rubbing damage in the future or they are canes that just arenโt ideal. Sometimes roses push up spindly shoots or shoots that are growing in odd directions. Remove anything that looks weak or makes the overall shape of the plant look irregular.
Reduce your rose to the desired height.
This tip is heavily debated in the rose world, so it is mostly up to your discretion. Think about what the mature size of the plant is supposed to be. Is your variety only supposed to reach 3 feet tall at maturity? Do you have a 6 foot tall shrub rose? These will need to be reduced in height differently.
Some growers will say to reduce the height of the plant by one-third. Others will say to reduce the height to between 18 inches tall and 3 feet tall, depending on the variety.
As a rule of thumb, if you want long, strong stems for cutting, prune shorter. You will likely prune this way if you are growing hybrid tea roses for cutting. If you want more of a bushy appearance, you will leave more height on the bush.
What I would not recommend is pruning all the way to the ground or pruning to a height of less than 6 to 12 inches.
There are times when it is important to rejuvenate an old plant and these practices might be tolerated with a very vigorous variety.
For example, I had a friend who got tired of the disease on her rose so she cut it to the ground, mostly because she was planning to rip it out later. It came back the next season looking absolutely beautiful and with no disease, so I would say a rejuvenation pruning was in order.
However, for the most part, if you prune too short, you have essentially wasted all the energy the rose put into growth from the previous season.
You also donโt leave much wiggle room for possible late frost damage that may occur if you prune too short. Some people prune roses in the Fall to a height of 6 inches tall here in the Midwest. Thankfully, Knockoutยฎ roses are sometimes tolerant of this treatment, and thatโs what most people plant, but I would be hesitant to do that with any other type of rose for fear of too much Winter dieback and losing the plant altogether.
Open up the plant for maximum airflow.
After youโve removed all the dead and diseased canes and youโve cut the rose down to your desired height, you will then need to assess if the rose is still a little crowded. Make sure that the canes are evenly spaced and have plenty of room for the new shoots to grow and bloom. A lot of people like to open up the center of the plant more, but overall I just look at the plant and make sure it looks nice and balanced.
Some people say to leave 3 to 5 strong canes, others will say you can leave more, depending on the variety. This is something you can experiment with because your variety and microclimate may dictate one thing while mine will dictate another.
The important thing to note is that airflow within the plant will help dry off the surfaces of the leaves and blooms after a rain or morning dew. This will reduce the incidence of disease! Any cultural methods we can do like planting further apart and opening up the rose bush to increase airflow is important, especially in a no-spray garden.
Use clean, sharp pruners.
Using clean, sharp pruners is important for any gardening task. The sharper the blade, the easier the cut. It also produces a cleaner cut which reduces the possibility of disease and makes the plant look more neat. Iโm sure youโve tried to cut with an old pair of pruners and inevitably ended up with a frayed end on your stem. Not only is it unsightly, it can be detrimental to the plant.
Cleaning your pruners as you work your way through a rose garden or landscape is also important! I will confess Iโm not the most diligent about this, but I try my best to wipe with alcohol or vinegar between varieties, especially if I just got done pruning a rose that had some disease on the canes.
Prune climbing roses differently.
Climbing roses are not pruned like shrub roses or hybrid teas. Some varieties have the ability to be trimmed into the shape of a large shrub, but chances are if you bought a climbing rose you actually want it to climb something, so it should be treated accordingly.
Climbing roses typically throw out long canes during the growing season. These canes may have a few blooms at the tip, making for a weird, gangly look if you havenโt tied them up to a trellis.
Climbing roses will push out lateral shoots from that main cane. These lateral shoots are where all the blooms are going to be! The key is to train your main cane to lay as horizontally as possible. This induces bud break of the lateral shoots and therefore more blooms.
When it comes to dormant pruning climbing roses, remove all the dead canes as normal, but then take a look at the plant. Choose 3 to 5 (or more) large, healthy canes to become the main canes and cut out everything else. Climbers are often more vigorous so I would not be afraid to hack away at them.
Train your main canes onto your fence, trellis, or obelisk so that they lay nearly horizontally. The following Spring you should see a bunch of shoots bursting forth from the laterals.
In some cases, you may have your climbing rose already trained. You can either trim off the old laterals from last season or trim them down to a few buds for the new seasonโs bloom growth. Start training new long shoots to replace your old, tired canes when the time comes.
Pruning a climbing rose is more of an art than a science, unfortunately. Use your best discretion.
Burn or bury your rose trimmings.
The best practice for getting rid of your rose trimmings is to burn or bury them.
I do not put them in the compost pile just because of the nature of many roses and their sensitivity to disease. If you canโt burn or bury them because you have limited space and/or live in town, the most important thing is just to get them out of your garden. Donโt leave them lying around the bushes.
Pruning doesnโt have to be difficult!
Donโt be afraid to prune your roses. I know many of us tend to think of them as precious and so we are afraid to cut on them. I promise that roses are more resilient than you think, and they will reward you so much when properly taken care of. A little bit of maintenance can go a long way, even for a Knockoutยฎ rose, which were bred to be low maintenance.
After pruning season is done, it is time to relax and enjoy the first bloom cycle of your roses! Yay! Enjoy your hard work.
But maintenance may not be over for youโthe next step is deadheading the faded blooms. You can read more about deadheading roses in this article.
