How to prune roses

So you think your roses need a trim, but you're not sure how to go about it? Roses are easy to prune and hard to kill. You should first read my other article, How To Prune Anything, since one prunes roses pretty much the same way they prune anything else. These are general guidelines that you can use on any kind of rose, be it wild or hybrid tea or floribunda or grandiflora or whatever else.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• clippers or shears

1. Remove any dead wood. Whenever your prune any branch, always make the cut as close the remaining wood as possible.

2. Here's the first thing you should know about pruning rose bushes: rose stems have either 3 leaves or 5 leaves. The 5 leaved branches are usually a little bigger than the 3 leaved ones, and whenever your remove a branch, try to cut it back to the nearest 5 leaved branch.

3. With that in mind, remove any touching or crossing branches.

4. Now, if you want to, you can shape your plant. If you don't want to shape it, you're done.

Tips & Warnings

• If you're new to pruning, don't go overboard. Your best bet is to leave as much of the plant intact as possible.
• Advanced technique: if you have a well established rose, giving it a 'haircut' or a short, all-over trim will tend to make it grow a whole bunch the next year.
• DO NOT PRUNE WHEN PLANTS ARE STRESSED UNLESS YOU HAVE TO. Pruning a plant places it under additional stress, so don't make its life harder than you need to.
• Safe times to prune: anytime but summer and early fall. Spring, winter, middle to late fall - all of those are excellent times. But during summer and early fall, plants are often under stress from drought.
• If you're not sure what you're doing, play it safe and don't take off anything that isn't dead or touching.
• Don't remove anything thicker than a pencil unless you have to. Roses store nutrients in their thicker canes, and removing too many canes can really weaken a plant.
• f you're doing a 'heavy prune' and taking off a lot of plant material, consider doing it in stages. Most plants really don't appreciate being whacked back. An established plant will be able to recover, but it won't be happy in the mean time. If you can, divide the plant into 3 equal sections, and cut one section back per year.