By late February, no matter how harsh the winter, spring is advancing daily. Buds are breaking on shrubs and trees and twigs of forsythia or witch hazel brought indoors will often open in a few days.
When it’s still too cold and wet to plant, we can keep busy by pruning roses. As usual, rose pruning begins with the removal of deadwood, which is usually grey rather than brown and shows no hint of green when you scratch the bark. On most roses, there’s a chunky knob around ground level, where the preferred rose is grafted onto sturdy rootstock. Use a sharp pruning saw to remove the funky oldest branches, leaving only stronger, younger branches. To avoid damaging good green branches as you work, wrap a silicon kitchen hotpad over branches you want to protect.
If you’re new to rose pruning, start with an overgrown old rose bush, since they’re hard to kill and ready for renewal. After removing deadwood and the oldest branches, you’re often left with a thicket of slimmer, greener branches. Crowded shrubs are prone to black spot and powdery mildew, so improve airflow by removing broken, weak or contorted branches and any that rub on or cross another. Make flush cuts just above the branch collar and never leave stubs, which are entry points for rot and disease (and ugly).
With a tea rose, the goal is to reduce each plant to 5-7 sturdy branches. Begin by cleanly removing all deadwood as described above, then cut most or all of the oldest, thickest branches to the graft knob. After removing any weak stems, leave five or six healthy canes, preferably evenly spaced and growing outward from the core of the shrub. Since real plants are rarely as tidy as the illustration in the pruning books, settle for preserving some of the best-looking canes, giving preference to those that aim out rather than in. Trim these remaining canes back to 3-4 feet, making an inward-slanting cut just above an outfacing bud or side shoot.
Dormant buds are easily spotted once you start looking for them. They look like small swellings on the canes, often marked with a short, faint horizontal stripe of brownish-green. Check between the thorns for these little bumps, which are distributed along the length of the canes. Some will be on the inside, others on either side, and some on the outfacing side of each cane; these outfacing bumps are the ones to trim just above.
In summer, when you deadhead or pick roses, always take each stem back to a five-part leaf just above an outfacing bud. Do all this consistently and your roses will become prettier and more productive with each passing season. My pruner of choice for light, small material is the ARS grape pruner, a compact, lightweight pruner with curving blades that don’t poke a hole in your pocket. These remain sharp for years and easily cut stems up to the size of a little finger. Poor quality anvil pruners are called the nurseryman’s best friend because they lead to so much plant death. For reliably high-quality branch pruners, try the light but strong ergonomic Bahco pruners or the classic (but heavier) Felcos, both in “scissor cut” styles. My favorite pruning saws are the folding Felco or Bahco saws with replaceable blades, and the somewhat sturdier folding saws made by ARS, Gomboy or Silky. Onward!
Contact Ann Lovejoy at 413 Madrona Way NE, Bainbridge Island, WA 98110 or visit Ann’s blog at http://www.loghouseplants.com/blogs/greengardening/ and leave a question/comment.