Gardeners Journal - Pruning Roses in the Spring

by Doug
(in his garden)

Pruning roses in the spring isn't tough when you consider the basic shape you're trying to create.

As I explain in this short video, you want to create an upside down umbrella out of your rose plant and you want to make all those initial cuts to an outward facing bud.

You'll be able to recognize the outward facing buds because they are small "bumps" regularly spaced up the cane and facing in all directions. Your job is to find one that faces out - away from the center of the plant between 12-18 inches above the ground. Cut the cane off at this point so the cut is as close to the bud as you can make it without hitting the bud. Leaving excess cane above the bud will leave dead stubs as the buds start to grow.



As long as you're pruning to outward facing buds whenever possible, you'll find the cane will fill in the center of the plant by itself. We don't cut off shoots below our pruning cut but allow them to survive no matter which direction they take off in.

The topmost bud will become the central leader off of which all the other summer blooms will come - so it is this one that we want to head away from the center of the plant.

I'll give you more tips on rose pruning later on in the summer as my roses fill out and bloom.