Hi, this is Yolanda Vanveen, and in this segment, we're going to talk about how to prune rose bushes. Now, rose bushes, come in every shape and size, and they're just beautiful. They're really easy to maintain and take care of, and there's a few simple pruning rules. Basically, you don't want to prune your roses back, more than one third of the entire plant, at one time, and the best time to prune them is the middle of the summer, when they bloom, and they kind of quit blooming, and you want to get a second set of blooms on them. Just cut off all of the dead blooms off of it, and any real lanky growth, about one third. Trim it down, and you'll get a new set of blooms for the fall, which is always gorgeous, and then in the middle of the winter, I like to go through, and trim it down at least one third, as well, and the trick is, if it's new growth, or really weak branches, trim them really strongly. The main branches of the plant, you only want to trim lightly, because you don't want to trim them down too far either, and make sure again, don't trim back more than one third of the plants, and the rule of thumb too, is for every three branches, cut one out, and then that way, the next year that the plant can concentrate on those remaining bushes, and you'll have even more lush, gorgeous roses, and my rule of thumb too, is once that flower has bloomed out, just cut the whole bloom down, at least to where there's a point, where there's other leaves. You don't want to cut it to the very bottom either. I like to cut it down maybe halfway, and then that way, it will shoot out new flowers, and you never want to cut it all the way to the stem, where it's going to meet, because then it won't encourage new growth, but if you cut it to where two leaves meet, you will find it will shoot off more roses. The great thing about pruning, or cutting out your roses, is that even if you go to town, and cut it really far down, it will eventually fill in, and anytime there's dead branches, or weak branches, or any branches that don't look just quite right, just trim them out, and you'll find new lush rose branches will fill in.
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