Weekend Gardening: Prune Roses Now For Fall Flowers

September 24, 2011

theresafriday.jpgRose flowering and overall performance aren’t great during our Gulf Coast summers, but each year we have the potential to have great fall blooms due to the cooler conditions and typically drier weather.

Although we should have pruned our rose bushes back in early spring, they have been growing since then, and many may look overgrown, leggy and less attractive now. That’s particularly true with the popular hybrid teas and grandifloras.

So a second, less severe pruning is recommended in early September to get rose bushes in shape for the fall blooming season.

First, all the dead growth should be removed. Make your cuts well into the healthy part of the canes just above a leaf or dormant bud – or remove the dead cane entirely back to its point of origin.

Next, remove weak, spindly canes the diameter of a pencil or less, particularly those growing in the interior of the plant. Cut them off at their point of origin, making sure you do not leave a stub. If you see any sprouts originating from the root stock (below the large, knobby graft union), cut them off, too. Do not remove any strong new shoots growing from the graft union, however.

The major part of the pruning involves shortening the remaining vigorous canes. This will produce a fuller, more attractive bush with larger, better quality flowers in October. This pruning needs to be done even if there are flowers on the bush now.

Cut the canes back to about 24 to 30 inches from the ground. Ideally, try to make each cut just above a bud that faces outward (away from the inside of the bush). The cuts should be made about one-fourth inch above the bud at a slight angle slanting away from the bud. Don’t leave a large stub sticking up above the bud or you will encourage stem rot, and don’t cut too close to the bud or you will kill it.

Clean up and dispose of all leaves and prunings from the area. Then fertilize the roses to encourage vigorous new growth. Use your favorite rose fertilizer following label directions or use a general-purpose fertilizer appropriate for your area.

Ever-blooming old garden roses, shrub roses, landscape roses and other groups also may be pruned now, but the pruning required generally is less severe and is done mostly to shape the bush or to control the size of more vigorous cultivars. Use your best judgment when it comes to pruning these roses.

Some roses – including many climbing roses, ramblers and old roses – only bloom once in spring and early summer. They should not be pruned back now, since they will produce flowers next year on the growth they made this summer. Cutting them back now or anytime before they bloom next year will reduce the number of flowers they produce.

Pruning is a job that many gardeners approach with apprehension. There is always a fear that if it’s not done correctly dire things may happen to a plant. With some exceptions, pruning shrubs is more like getting a haircut. Even a really bad haircut eventually will grow out and look better.

Theresa Friday is the Residential Horticulture Extension Agent for Santa Rosa County.

Comments

2 Responses to “Weekend Gardening: Prune Roses Now For Fall Flowers”

  1. Anita Davis on September 26th, 2011 8:36 am

    Susan, Not sure but it works great! Also my sister has told me to use fish emulsion that you buy at a feed store when planting blueberry bushes, roses, etc and add it as a fertilizer occasionally. Happy Fall!

  2. Susan Wallace on September 25th, 2011 12:04 pm

    My mother’s roses are beautiful every year. One thing she does is pours old aquarium water on them. What is in the old fish water that makes the blooms so big and healthy?

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