How to Prune Rose Bushes & Spent Flowers
Pruning rose bushes and removing dead blooms (deadheading) is an important part of growing roses. It will help keep your rose bushes healthy and encourage more beautiful blooms. Pruning should be done in early spring just as the new buds begin to swell. The only exception to this is once-blooming roses which should be pruned right after they bloom. Deadheading should be done regularly throughout the blooming season. Does this Spark an idea?
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Instructions
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Trim away any dead branches. The dead branches will be tan, brown or gray and brittle. Trim it back to the base of the bush.
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Cut away any damaged branches. Trim down to where there is healthy undamaged growth. The branch will most likely recover and produce new growth but keep an eye on it. If it continues to whither and becomes brittle, trim it back to the base.
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Take out any branches that are growing across each other. Trim them all the way back to the base of the bush. They will most likely get damaged and have to be cut out eventually and your bush will look nice and neat without branches growing every which way.
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Trim away any sucker branches that are growing up from below the graft. The graft is a small knob at the base of the bush. Remove anything growing on your rosebush below that knob.
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Prune the top and sides to shape the bush up in general. Take about 1/3 of the bush's total height off the top and trim back any branches that may stick out and give the bush a messy look.
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Remove dead branches from climbing roses after the bush is older than 2 years. Over-trimming a climbing rose will do more damage than good. The old growth is necessary to allow it to climb. Only trim away dead growth and branches that can not be trained to grow on the trellis or other support structure.
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Pluck dead and fading flowers as you see them. Check for them once or twice a week during the blooming season. Deadheading allows the plant to devote more nutrients to new blooms.
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