Pruning Roses
The first of these is early spring when you’re going to remove any dead overwintered wood. You’ll be able to recognize this as it will be brownish instead of vibrant green. Remove all dead wood down to live wood.
There’s a common bit of advice in the rose pruning world to always prune the wood with a bit of an angle to the cut. This is supposed to assist the cut portion with shedding water.
The data I’ve collected over the years points out that almost as soon as this woody stem is cut, it begins to heal and requires no help in shedding water.
Make the cut with an angle if it makes you feel good but don’t worry about doing it or the angle of the cut.
The second time you’ll likely want to prune a hybrid tea rose is to deadhead the spent flowers. There are several good bits of advice you want to hear about this.
The first is to always use sharp pruning shears. Dull ones crush the ends of the wood and this can lead to excessive rotting and slow healing of the woody cane. Sharp tools are essential for plant health.
The second is to make the pruning cut 1/4 inch above an outward facing bud below the flower. Sometimes this outward facing bud will be 6 inches below the flower and sometimes 12 inches. The length of the cut isn’t important – there is some research that points out that a longer cut stem will produce more flowers in subsequent flower flushes.
What is important in pruning roses is to open up the center of the plant to increase air circulation. This reduces black spot and other fungal problems. So do try to cut to an outward facing bud
If you can’t find an outward facing bud, pick a sideways facing bud. Just do not pick an inward facing bud as we do not want growth to move to the center of the plant.
You’ll repeat this second deadheading stage of pruning roses throughout the rose growing season.
The third time for pruning roses is for winter.
Generally speaking, you will remove excessive stem growth after all the leaves have fallen off in the fall. Do not do this before the leaves have fallen or you’ll actually stimulate new growth.
After the leaves have fallen, and you’re about to hill the plant, decide how tall your hill will be. If it is 12 inches tall, then cut the canes back to 12 inches. If 18 inches tall, then cut your canes back to 18 inches. You’re going to just cover the tops of the canes.
If you are overwintering your roses as northern planted roses with a deep bud-union plnating, then you’re going to cut the canes to the ground.
Next spring, you start the process all over again
Still have questions about pruning roses?
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