Rose Garden - Pruning Roses by Ielean Spanos

FIRST THINGS FIRST:
Buy a good pruning book. You'll refer to it over and over again throughout the years.
Pruning by David Squire is our favourite - it's clearly written and illustrated, and covers tree and cane fruits as well.

Buy a really good pair of pruning shears (secateurs) and learn how to sharpen them.
We like the Felco brand because they last forever, they have replacement parts available, and they sell a left-handed model. Keep them sharp and oiled.

Unless you're growing Mini roses exclusively, you'll need a heavy duty long handled lopper, plus a pruning saw and ideally a good strong pruning knife for trimming cuts.

Get some good quality pruning gloves to protect you from the thorns. Long heavy cuffs are an advantage in reducing bloodletting.

Vi recommends goat-skin gloves (available from Edmonds Roses in Oregon),
Ielean finds that the Watson Rose Warriors are the best of the local brands but they do wear out quickly.

Start a diary: to record how you pruned your roses every year, followed by notes on the roses' performance.

STOP, LOOK and THINK:
Go and look at your rose. Decide on the type of rose it is:
Hybrid Tea
Floribunda
Climber
Rambler
Old Garden Rose
Species - etc.

The type of rose affects the pruning method. We'll give some hints here, and your pruning book will have more specifics.

Then think about this individual rose:
Do you know what this rose's growth habits are?
Is it a rampant grower, is it delicate?
How did it respond to pruning last year?
Did it bloom well?
Did it put on growth where you wanted?

Keep notes on your roses so you will know how they performed year to year
Do you have any particular goals for this rose?
How much space do you have to give it?
Do you want to confine it or get it to bush out?
Do you want it to climb or go along a fence?
Do you want it to be less twiggy, taller, shorter, etc.?

AND: is this rose truly suited to what you want it to do? With very few exceptions, you can't make a shrub rose climb, or turn a rambler into a neat bush. Be realistic in your goals.

NOW GET OUT YOUR PRUNERS:
Pruning Hybrid Tea and Floribunda bushes:

In general, Hybrid Teas respond to hard pruning with fewer but larger individual blooms. Floribundas should not be pruned as far back because you want a larger flush of flowers on a bushier plant.

If you are aiming for a bush with a maximum height of three feet for example, start by cutting all stems at the three foot mark.

Then apply the three "D's" - look for diseased, damaged or dead wood and remove it. If you've had to remove a lot of diseased wood, don't worry too much - the rose will recover and send out new canes, or in the worst case it will die and you'll replace it. But don't be tempted to leave diseased wood on the bush.

Keep the sturdy stems that will support good growth and remove all of the small twiggy stems under the size of a pencil (this depends on the variety - some are naturally slender so adjust your decisions as necessary)

Open the inside of the bush - remove branches that are crossing to the inside and reduce the number of inside stems, to promote good air circulation. This may involve selectively removing large, older stems, especially if there are other sturdy new stems already established to take their place.

When taking out entire canes, cut as close to the bud union as possible - try to make it flush, don't leave a stub. You may need to trim the cut with a pruning saw or knife.

Cut the stems you are keeping to about 1/4" above an outward-facing bud or swelling on the cane, if you can find one. If you are pruning early in the dormant season, you may not see buds. Just prune back to some healthy wood and return in the Spring to trim back further if necessary.

Cut at a slight angle away from the bud.

Make your cuts clean and without ragged edges - keep your secateurs sharp. Disinfect your tools as often as you can by dipping in a mild bleach solution - this is to avoid transferring disease between cuts and between plants.

Look at the rose to see that the shape is generally balanced. It won't be perfect like in the magazines, that's OK.

Clean up all the leaves and pruned stems from the ground around the rose - the litter on the ground is where disease over-winters. Dispose of this litter in the garbage or by burning - do not compost - the diseases can survive composting.

If you want to apply a dormant oil and lime sulfur spray, now is the time to do it. If you want, you can seal your pruning cuts with pruning wax to prevent cane borers from getting in.

If there is still apt to be cold weather, you can mulch over the bud union with leaves or compost for protection from frost.

Pruning Climbers:
Don't prune off the long stems! They are the foundation for the climbing rose.

Decide what kind of climber it is - does it bloom on new wood or last year's growth?

Large Flowered Climbers - Don Juan, Compassion, New Dawn, and some shrubs like Mme.

Isaac Periere and Gertrude Jeykll who put out long, strong stems.

Get as many long canes as possible into a horizontal position by tying over onto a fence, wire, trellis or stake.

Cut out any weak or diseased shoots, and if you have your long, horizontal canes selected, cut out any branching canes or canes that are sprouting in the wrong direction.

Any branches (called laterals) coming out of these main horizontal canes, trim back to 2 - 5 inches or three buds, depending on the rose. Trimming the laterals creates spurs, each of which will bloom. If you were to let the laterals grow, they would shoot skyward and you'd get only flowers at the tips.

You are creating a framework of long canes with short lateral shoots. If you have pruned spur-forming Apples, you already know what to do.

Once you have a good strong framework, then grit your teeth every couple of years and selectively remove one or two of the old horizontal canes. This is to encourage strong new growth from the base.

Pruning Ramblers:

Generally you take out canes that have flowered in the summer, right back to the base, and keep your new growth tied in to the trellis or fence. This is a similar approach to Raspberries.

Pruning Species roses

Generally don't cut them high up on the stems - they'll branch out in all directions from there.
After removing the three "D's", trim back laterals but don't cut the tips of the long canes.

Thin species roses by selectively cutting canes right back to the base.

Once blooming roses in general should be pruned in the summer after blooming. Pruning in winter can destroy the next year's bloom.

Alternative pruning:

Some, such as Graham Stewart Thomas, prefer letting Modern Shrubs and Species bush roses grow without pruning at all - just occasional thinning by removing main stems and shortening of side shoots.

The limiting factor is how much room you have in the garden to let them sprawl.
(It may be purely coincidence that the rose named after G.S.T. is totally unruly and isn't amenable to any form of discipline)

When and how often to prune depends on both the rose and the climate. A question came up on the Internet asking when the appropriate time to prune American Pillar was. A gent from the Southern US replied "The appropriate time to prune American Pillar here is every second Wednesday!"

The appropriate pruning time in Victoria is a matter of personal preference - you can prune any time from mid-December up until April. If you prune early, you risk losing early shoots to frost, but reduce wind damage from winter storms. If you prune later, the rose has already broken dormancy (or like this year, never went to sleep in the first place) and has expended considerable energy into the new growth that you are chopping off.

There is no right answer - prune when the spirit moves you, and keep a record of how YOUR roses responded - then repeat what works for you.