Rose pruning

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How to Prune Roses

Pruning roses is one of the most important parts of rose culture; just as it is most necessary to prepare the ground properly and to plant intelligently, so also should one be certain to prune systematically. The whole growth of the plant is changed by the manner of its pruning.

For border or lawn roses the pruning after the first year should consist of removing diseased or dead wood, or weak and crossing branches. It is better to remove whole branches where necessary rather than to make a practice of cutting off the ends. Most of the roses of this type are benefited by having the whole top cut off every five or six years. By doing the pruning in the spring it is possible to leave the attractive hips to brighten the planting through the winter.

In pruning cut-flower roses, the number and size of the blossoms desired will determine the method of pruning. Severe pruning must be practiced for the production of individual blossoms of great perfection and for continuous bloom. Severe pruning of hybrid perpetuals consists of cutting them back to four or five eyes. To get a great mass of bloom in roses of this variety, only one-third to one-half of the shoots should be cut away. Teas and hybrid teas should be pruned in the same manner as described for hybrid perpetuals except that in cold climates they should be trimmed later in the spring and about the time the growth starts. China and Bengal roses should not be cut quite as closely as the teas. Bourbon roses prefer summer pruning. Only one-half of the shoots should be removed. In severe climates there should be only a partial pruning in the fall. Where the winters are mild the pruning can be done in the fall or early spring. In all varieties the weak and crossing branches should be removed every year.

Introduction to Rose Pruning

Under climbing varieties we have given rules for their proper care and we will take up that pruning which applies to all the roses contained in our main list. It is an easy matter when the theory of it is understood. Perhaps the simplest and clearest illustration which could be given would be to suppose a rose cane has fifteen buds or eyes on it; from these buds or eyes spring the shoots which afterward become the flower stalks of the plant. Now, if you did not prune at all but left the entire cane, the sustenance received from the roots would be divided into fifteen parts. As a matter of fact the greatest amount would go to the end or top of the cane and to those buds nearest the top, for in all plant life it is more difficult to get the sap to break the buds nearest the base, especially if there is too great a distance from that base to the top of the lateral, limb, or cane.

Roses will differ in growth and the strongest growers will naturally throw out more buds on any given length of cane than the weaker. In addition to this, plants of low spreading growth, whose canes grow more or less parallel to the ground, do not send their sap as quickly to the ends of the growth as do plants whose canes are more upright. For this reason different varieties require somewhat different pruning, and in our list we have given the number of eyes or buds to which each variety should be cut back, provided, of course, the wood has not been winter killed below the point indicated. Returning to the theory of the sap and the illustration of the cane with fifteen buds : we cut off, say, ten of these buds from the cane and the five remaining will receive just so much more sap and there will be that much more chance of the lowest buds breaking and sending out their shoots. If the cane were not cut the greater part of the sap would go to the few top buds and the lower buds would be late in growing, some possibly not breaking at all. Nature prunes the weaker varieties by killing back a portion of their wood, thus causing them to throw up strong, new canes.

It will readily be understood that the larger the cane and the hardier and more vigorous the plant, the more buds could be left with still a chance for their breaking; conversely, the weaker the variety and the smaller the cane the less sap would be contained therein and the fewer buds would break and grow shoots in any given length of cane. This is the main theory of pruning roses, provided that it is reasonable quality, and not quantity without much quality, that one wants.

Rose Pruning and Blooms

The average rose plant in its second year should give from fifteen to fifty blooms, according to the variety, if it is cut back on this principle. Shy bloomers will not give fifteen flowers and the greater number of these will be borne in the spring.

Usually a good bloomer will have three or four flowering periods, the most profuse being in the spring and early fall. Some of our records are as follows:

Duchess of Wellington: June, thirteen flowers; July, eight flowers; August, ten flowers; September, sixteen flowers; total forty-seven.

Madame Leon Pain: June, eleven flowers; July, six flowers; August, eight flowers; September, eight flowers; total thirty- three.

Lady Alice Stanley will give twenty-five flowers; Killarney a few more; Mock not over twenty; General MacArthur twenty-five.

These figures are made from average plants, not selected specimens, and the late bloom is not included.

In counting blooms only those with fair stems are considered and the usual amount of disbudding done.

If you desire more blooms of poorer quality you should not prune your roses as far back as suggested below. They will also require a certain amount of thinning out after the growing season starts so that the various shoots do not crowd each other too much. Except for the strongest varieties of roses which are so pruned they should be staked, i.e., fastened to a stake driven firmly into the ground. If you so prune and stake do not use wire but tie the bushes to the stakes with soft woolen string. This latter course of pruning is usually carried out with roses of the bedding type, on which the blooms are seldom fine enough for cutting; but so treated the plants form a mass of color and are used for this reason for garden decoration.

The best and usually accepted way of pruning roses for cutting is to prune for the finest blooms. As a general working rule prune the strongest varieties to five buds or eyes, about six to ten inches, on the main strong canes, the small weaker canes being cut to three or four eyes, about six inches. You can always make your plant grow in whatever direction you wish by cutting to a bud which leads in the desired direction; e.g., in order to spread our plant, if the fifth eye is on the inside of plant, cut to the eye above it if is a large cane, for the eye above is on the outside of the plant; or if the wood is somewhat smaller and weaker than the other canes on the plant cut to the outside eye below. In this way your plant will be spread out and the shoots will not all crowd together on the inside, as would be the case if you cut to inside eyes. It is always better to cut to an outside bud; although in special cases where you wish to throw a shoot in some other desired direction cut to the bud nearest the space you wish to fill with the new growth. With weaker varieties cut to three and four eyes on the stronger-growing canes, and to two and three eyes on the very weak ones. Each of these buds left on the cane should throw up flower stalks.

Rose Pruning and Crowding

In addition to this main theory, there are one or two other points which it is necessary to consider in pruning plants. They should not be too much crowded and the best way to prevent this is by cutting out the weakest growths. At first it may be somewhat difficult for one to be sure which cane should be removed, but by watching the plants after growth is started this will soon be readily understood. An absolute rule cannot be given for the number of canes to be left, but there must not be too much crowding, particularly in the center of the plant. All dead wood should also be removed. This can be easily detected and it should be cut back to its junction with the bud, care being taken not to injure the bark of the bud and to make a clean, sharp amputation.

Quite a number of varieties have the unfortunate habit of throwing out one or perhaps two very large growths on one side of the plant, the opposite side being correspondingly immature and weak. In such cases, in order to balance the plant, particularly for succeeding years, cut back the one or two large growths very "wickedly," one or two eyes being the proper distance. Cut out all but the best of the remaining weaker stems, and after growth has commenced do not allow the stalks on the strong canes to get beyond control. This treatment will serve to equalize the growths on such plants. In England, where the cold does not kill back the canes so far, the Hybrid Teas are pruned to a greater number of eyes. Pemberton, for example, advises leaving Caroline Testout from two to three feet, but in our climate this rose would be killed back to from four to eight inches and in the north to an even greater degree.

When to Prune Roses

Pruning is usually done after the main body of rost has left the ground. Where frost does not occur the pruning should be done at the season of the year when the buds commence to break; even in climates where there is no frost roses will have a dormant season, and the time the buds begin to break will be the proper time to prune in such localities. Usually in such climates the dormant season of the rose is the time during which it does not get any water, that is, during the dry season. With the return of the rains the dormant plant commences further growth. This refers, of course, to climates in which there is practically no whiter, i.e., no frost.

When the buds begin to push out on all the living wood, the operator can more readily see exactly how much wood is dead and which needs to be thinned out, and just how much wood is living on each cane; therefore this is the best time in which to prune roses in all climates.

In the spring pruning it will sometimes be found that canes of the weaker varieties have died back after a very severe winter to a smaller number of buds than above noted or given in our list, though these exceptions should be rare. If the wood has died back to any extent you will, of necessity, be forced to prune to the first good bud or eye below the winter killed portion without reference to the number of buds, even if the cane is shorter than that left by the usual system. This information is a general working rule. There are some few varieties which, on account of their peculiar growth, should be pruned differently, and to cover this point thoroughly we have noted in our main list the number of eyes to which each variety should be pruned, the number so given referring to the strongest canes; on the weaker ones you will, of course, cut to a less number of eyes.