When you know how and when toprune roses properly, you’ll get almost immediate rewards for your efforts.
You’ll likely get more blooms through the growing season and healthier plants.
So don’t let your roses' prickly limbs and sometimes unruly growth habits intimidate you.
Credit: Blaine Moats
When to Prune Roses
Plan to give your roses agood pruning at least once a year.
For once-blooming rose varieties, wait until early summer to prune them just after they’ve bloomed.
Useyour USDA Hardiness Zoneto figure out the best time to prune roses in your area.
Credit: Laurie Black
Make all final cuts at a 45-degree angle above an outward-facing bud eye (pictured above).
As you work through these cuts, remember that roses are vigorous plants that are hard to damage irreparably.
In most cases, new growth will quickly hide anypruning mistakes you make.
Credit: Blaine Moats
Remove any dead branches and canes.
Cut back to live wood; it usually looks green on the outside.
Prune broken or unhealthy branches.
Prune diseased or damaged branches back to healthy wood.
Clip away branches that cross through the center of the plant.
Remove any growth that is much thinner or weaker than the rest.
This will help direct the plant’s energy toward its strongest stems.
For grafted roses, cut off any suckers that start growing from the root stock.
Take out older woody growth, unless it would thin out the plant too much.
This will encourage the rose to produce young, vigorous growth that will flower more.
If any remaining branches rub against each other, cut away the smaller ones.
Otherwise, the wound made by the rubbing can allow in diseases.
Shape plants as desired.
Make cuts to adjust the overall height and width of your rose.
Clean up pruning debris.
Then, you’ve got the option to step back andwatch your roses thrive and bloomfor another year.
In addition, you’ll want to wear thick gauntlet gloves to protect yourself against sharp thorns.
Leaving your roses unpruned can ultimately lead to their premature demise.
Rose plants will be more productive and healthier with regular pruning.
A lack of pruning can lead to more incidence of diseases and pests.
Doing so can cause the plant to go into shock and it may not be able to recover.
