Pruning Roses, When and How

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Recommendations For Pruning Roses In The Kansas City Area

When to prune?

• Roses are best pruned in the spring. In Kansas City, prune during the first week or two of April, after the threat of frost has passed.
  

Why prune every spring?

• Encourages more flower production
• Improves the health of the bush by opening the center of the plant to light and airflow
• Removes damaged and diseased canes
• Helps control size and shape

Rose pruning steps

1 - If the roses were covered with mulch, leaves, or soil for winter protection:

• pull the covering away from the canes to prevent disease.

2 - Remove Dead, Damaged & Diseased Canes

• Dead canes. Any canes that are dead need to be removed at ground level. Don’t’ leave short stubs.
  
• Damaged canes. Any canes that have been broken or are discolored from cold damage need to be pruned back to healthy tissue, where the pith in the center of the cane is pearly white or light tan.
• Diseased canes. Canes with brown, black, or purple blotches  need to be pruned below all the diseased spots to healthy tissue with pearly white or light tan pith in the center of the cane.

• Crossing canes. Canes that rub against each other cause damage to the cane tissue which allows for disease entry. One of the crossing canes needs to be removed to the ground or back to the next outward facing bud.
• Misdirected canes. Occasionally, canes will grow toward the center of the bush or are otherwise not growing in a graceful, natural direction. Remove them to the ground or back to the next outward facing bud.
• Weak canes. Canes with a diameter less than that of a lead pencil (1/4-inch) need to be removed.
  *Click any image below to enlarge

Before Pruning A Sweet Diana Miniature

After Pruning A Sweet Diana Miniature

Before Pruning A Dick Clark Rose

After Pruning A Dick Clark Rose

3 - The remaining canes should be thinned out to 3-7 healthy ones and shortened to desired height.

• Old, woody canes should be removed.
• Hybrid tea roses can be pruned down to 6-8 inches to encourage larger flowers.
• Most landscape roses can be cut down by half.
• Old garden roses and rugosas require minimal shortening.
• Make final pruning cut 1/4 to 1/2 inch above an outward facing bud and seal cut with waterproof carpenter’s glue.
  Ortho’s All About Roses, Tommy Cairns, Copyright 1999.  
  
  

Also See: Rose Diseases,Cankers

Pruning Climbing Roses

• Climbing roses require special attention
  
• The main canes of a climbing rose should be trained to grow as near to horizontal as possible. These main canes should not be pruned unless they meet one of the criteria in Step 2 above.
  
  
• Lateral canes growing from the main canes should be pruned back leaving at least four buds. Most flowers will be produced by these lateral canes.

Pruning Climbers, a video by Heirloom Roses  

• Click to View Video  (YouTube)
  

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Optional -- spray with fungicides

• If there has been a problem with blackspot in the past, this is a good time to spray the pruned bushes and the area around them with a fungicide that kills fungal spores on contact such as mancozeb or chlorothalonil.
  

 
Spring Fertilizer

• This is a good time to fertilize the plants to get them off to a good start.
  
• Read More About Fertilizing Roses