Golden Tips To Pruning Your Roses

Golden Tips To Pruning Your Roses

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To ensure that your roses continue to provide you with glorious flowers, you need to prune them at least once a year. This removes all the old dead and diseased parts of the bush and encourages new growth and more abundant blooms. Pruning also helps prevent disease by opening up the plant and allowing more air to circulate. This inhibits fungus growth. You also prune your bushes to give them the ideal shape and add to their aesthetic appeal.
Dont be daunted by the idea of pruning your rose bushes. It really isnt that difficult if you follow the guidelines Ive laid out below.

Use a pair of sharp secateurs, a pruning saw and some good gardening gloves. Ensure your equipment is cleaned with a solution of bleach and water before you begin. This helps to prevent disease. Clean your tools after every bush that you prune so that you dont unintentionally spread disease from one plant to another.
Prune your roses when they are dormant and not in full growth. This is normally in fall or winter. You should ideally try to prune your shrub roses every year. Some climbing rose varieties only require pruning every second year.
Make sure your roses arent being crowded by other plants and trim away any vegetation that is imposing on them. Also clear the area around the base of the plants of any weeds.
Cut away the old, dead or diseased woody bits first. Cut a few inches below any canker on the stems to ensure you cut it out completely.
Prune away canes in the center of the bush, you want to ensure lots of air circulation and prevent any branches rubbing on one another.
Dont prune the healthy, green canes that grow directly out of the bud union, but keep these. However, prune any green canes growing out of old, woody canes.
When you prune a cane, try to cut it as flush to the bud union as possible. If you leave a stub, it can potentially die back into the bud union and create the opportunity for disease to develop.
Make all of your cuts clean, dont hack or saw at the canes and leave jagged wounds that can more easily develop infections.
When you prune the canes, cut just above the buds at a 45 degree angle away from the actual bud. You can recognize buds as the little bumps just above where leaves join the main stem. These buds grow into new shoots. Try to look for buds that are facing outward as you want the new shoots to grow outward from the center of the plant.
When youre finished pruning, you should seal all your pruning cuts with a sealing compound to help prevent any disease from infecting them. Elmers glue works well.

Ultimately, when youve finished pruning, you want a rose bush that is about 20 inches tall with 4 to 8 canes remaining. Give your bush a bit of fertilizer in the springtime and you should be rewarded with an abundance of glorious blooms in the summer.

About the Author:
Kendall Rowsby is an ardent gardener and rose enthusiast. If you'd like more rose growing tips then please visit http://romanticrosegardens.com/rose-gardening-tips/



Article Originally Published On: http://www.articlesnatch.com


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