Tips for Growing Roses

Pruning Roses

January is a very busy month for those of us who are into roses. This is THE TIME to prune, plant, or transplant. The best way to learn to prune is to go to a pruning demonstration. There are a lot of them this month. If you can not avail yourself to a demonstration, go to the library and check out a book. These will have words of advice and nice pictures and diagrams. The only problem I have with that is that none of my roses bushes ever grow like the pictures in the books!

Now if all of this sounds like WORK, it is, but it is worth it, you will have happier plants with more blooms. Most roses like to be trimmed, it pushes them into putting out new canes and laterals. The exception to the January prune are old garden varieties which prefer to be trimmed after they bloom in the spring, providing that is the only time they bloom. Actually I have several other exceptions, wouldn't you know it, just when you thought you had it all figured out. New climbers, ones that are less than a year old should be left alone, since they bloom on second year wood. Actually any really new bushes, unless they really grew can be left alone the first year.

Any bushes that you are planning on transplanting should be pruned. It is a lot easier to move a two foot plant than a six foot one. Plus the pruning pushes them into dormancy so that they rest up in the moving process. Why move them, well sometimes they are simply too large for the place you selected. I have had that happen a few times. Sometimes they may be getting too much shade or too much sun and switching them to the opposite location really turns them on.

After you have trimmed and thinned and generally filled your garbage can and that is what you want to do, rose canes do not compost well. Clean up your beds. All the old leaves, weeds etc. should be thrown out. That is where the mildew spores and the insect eggs are hiding so get rid of them. After you have your beds all beautiful, gently cultivate them. Gently because you don't want to disturb the roots that are near the surface. Now you are all ready to fertilize right around the first week in March.

That was easy wasn't it? Actually if you have large numbers of cultivars it will probably take most of this month to accomplish what I have suggested and I did not even talk about planting. We will all hope that January is nice and mild so that all this outdoor activity will be pleasant, not freezing or wet.

Happy cutting and be sure to wear your gloves the downside of growing roses is that they do have thorns.