HOW TO PRUNE YOUR ROSES

Follow our Spring Pruning Guide to help you achieve beautiful, vibrant blooms all summer long.

To get a hands-on lesson about pruning roses, you are welcome to attend an in-person pruning demonstration
throughout the metro area presented by the Portland Rose Society.

After we round the corner from Winter to Spring, usually a couple of weeks into February, gardeners begin to get anxious — particularly the rose gardener who wants to get a jump on pruning the roses. In Portland, early Spring is the best time of year to start pruning your roses because you can identify which canes are old, damaged, and unproductive while avoiding frost-caused damage to the new growth that emerges after pruning.

Pruning roses is a rather simple process, yet every experienced rose grower will describe the technique slightly differently — and will probably do it slightly differently.

One important fact to remember is that no matter how you prune unless you cut the rose below the ground line, it will survive and bloom.

On the flip side, a total lack of pruning will yield poorer results than any amount of over pruning you may do, so prune with confidence and the results will be good. 

Keep in mind that we prune rose bushes for us, not for the rose. The rose will continue to thrive even if it gets little or no pruning, but it will not be as beautiful.

What Types of Pruners Should You Use For Roses?

In general, bypass pruners are preferred because they will give you a nice clean cut on the stem. Felco is the brand preferred by many rose gardeners.

Where to Start Pruning On Your Hybrid Tea Rose Bush

Begin the process by first looking closely at the rose bush, a typical example of which is depicted below. Every rose bush in the garden will have grown differently during the past season, so begin by carefully looking at what you have to start with. This is a very important part of the process.

This first part of the examination should be directed toward the lower part of the rose bush, the area from which the canes (rose stems) originate, which is called the bud union.

The purpose of pruning is to remove all weak growth, leaving only strong, healthy canes that can adequately support the growth expected during the upcoming summer.

When the pruning is done, it is likely that a good bit of the uppermost parts of the bush will be removed. This is true for hybrid teas, floribundas and miniature roses. Climbers, non-remontant varieties (plants that only bloom once per season), and old garden roses are pruned a little differently. Their pruning will be discussed later.  

Identifying Old Growth and What Should Be Pruned

While studying the bottom of the bush, identify the youngest and strongest canes. These can be identified by their color, texture and size. Young canes, one or two years old, are usually green in color and have a relatively smooth outer surface. As canes age, they will usually become darker or grey-brown in color as they develop a thicker bark. Aging canes also become rough in texture due to the cracking and peeling of the outer bark.

With hybrid tea roses, if it has canes that are obviously old, chances are those canes are not very productive and should be entirely removed by cutting them off at the bud union (their origin) using loppers or a pruning saw. (See the darkened cane in the illustration below.) A non-productive older cane can be identified by looking at last year's growth emanating from it — if all of the growth coming from an old cane is small and twiggy, it’s a sign that this cane should be removed because it is no longer able to produce vigorous new growth and flowers.

An old cane that has large, healthy looking secondary canes coming from it is usually still productive and should be saved. If a cane is to be removed, cut it off as close to the bud union as possible. Stumps of canes left protruding from the bud union after pruning are unattractive and will eventually be consumed by fungi and rot away. Since gardening is about beauty, try to remove old canes during pruning. The results are more pleasing than rotting stumps.

Next, remove any of the younger canes that cross the middle of the bush. These canes should either be removed entirely back to the bud union, or back to the major cane from which they originated. Growth from crossing canes will become intertwined with other new growth with the net result being fewer quality flowers. Then, remove canes that are crowded close to each other, generally leaving the larger one of each crowded pair.

Finally, if there is any twiggy growth remaining anywhere on the bush, cut it back to its point of origin. (All of the dark colored areas on the bush in the illustration would be removed to achieve the desired effect.) 

How Much Should You Prune Your Rose Bush?

There are basically three general categories recognized for finished pruning height: hard, moderate, and light pruning.

When doing a hard pruning, the canes are cut back to a length such that there are only three or four buds on each of three to five canes. This will result in leaving only very sturdy canes about 5-12 inches long. The illustration at right depicts an average rose bush before pruning and after it has been "hard" pruned.

Hard pruning is sometimes recommended for newly planted roses and is often used by exhibitors to promote the growth of exhibition quality blooms. The logic behind this is that the new canes which will grow from the old canes can be no larger than the ones from which they originated. So, if the new canes grow from very large canes, there is a good possibility that they will be large too. These larger flowering canes often produce larger flowers. Overall, the result from hard pruning is larger, but fewer, flowers on the bush. 

During any pruning, take note of the color of the cut surface of the cane. It should be almost white. If the cut surface of the cane (stem) is brown, it indicates that the cane has been damaged by the winter, and you need to cut it again a little lower until you find undamaged cane. It takes time for freeze damage to develop so it is possible that some undamaged looking canes will need to be pruned again later in the spring. 

The second category is "moderate pruning". In this method, the canes are cut back to about 12-18 inches.

Weaker than average canes need to be reduced by more than this amount. This is the recommended pruning style for most hybrid teas and floribundas in home gardens.

Moderate pruning will result in a bush that produces more flowers and a bigger plant during the current season, but the flowers may be slightly smaller and the canes a little smaller than if the rose was given a "hard pruning". 

The third category of Spring pruning is "light pruning". In light pruning, the canes are cut back so that about two-thirds of their length remains when the job is finished.

Light pruning is not generally recommended because it often results in overly tall, spindly bushes in our climate area. These bushes will bear blooms earlier in the  year, but the blooms will often be of poor quality and without stems suitable for cutting. The stems that are produced may not be sturdy enough to hold up the flowers.

Among the hybrid tea roses, there seems to be at least one exception to moderate pruning being the best practice. Peace roses and their descendants seem to perform better if given a light pruning. However, it is still wise to remove all the little and twiggy growth.

The severity of pruning has less influence over the growth and flower production of the bush than we think — unless little to no pruning is done.

Pruning Advice For Climbing Roses, Miniatures, and English Roses

How to Prune Climbing Roses

Climbers need to be pruned differently. If a climber is trained into a horizontal position, as illustrated in the diagram, the only pruning that should be done in the spring is to prune the laterals, the short upright shoots coming from the main canes.  

These laterals should be reduced in length by pruning such that only two or three bud eyes remain, which is usually about 2-4 inches. An alternate method is to completely remove the laterals. The rose will then produce new laterals from dormant eyes in the main cane. The areas of pruning are marked with slashes on the diagram. Also, any old canes that are detected as being unproductive (no vigorous growth being produced by them in the previous year) should be removed to ground level (the bud union). New canes should be trained by tying them into a horizontal position.

Any additional pruning should be done only to shape the bush to fit the style that is desired and to keep it in bounds. Climbers are meant to be large, so we leave a lot of healthy wood.

How To Prune Miniature Roses

Miniature roses are pruned in much the same way as hybrid tea roses, just on a smaller scale. Prune healthy canes back to 4 to 8 inches long and remove all the twiggy growth. Miniatures are very vigorous and will respond well to severe pruning by producing a number of new basal breaks, or new stems originating from below the ground. You can prune them by shearing them if you like.  

At this time, Old Garden Roses and other onetime bloomers should be only lightly pruned to shape and control their size and to remove old unproductive wood. More pruning can be done, but these rose types produce blooms on old wood and removing additional wood now reduces this year's blooms. Save any major pruning on these roses until the blooming cycle is completed.  

How To Prune English (or David Austin) Roses

The English (David Austin's) roses may be pruned like hybrid teas, but using the light to moderate pruning methods. Most of the English roses bloom on new wood, so pruning is done to produce a healthy base that can accommodate the current year’s growth just like hybrid teas, floribundas, etc.

Basically, if they grow like a climber, prune them like a climber and if they grow like a hybrid tea, prune them like a hybrid tea. When in doubt, remove all parts of the bush that are too small or weak to hold up the growth anticipated for this year and leave as much strong wood as you want, the more you leave the bigger the bush will be and the more flowers you will get.

What To Do When You’ve Finished Pruning

So, you’ve identified your rose bush’s old canes and trimmed them away, along with spindly and twiggy growth. How do you know when enough is enough? Ideally, your rose bush will have only sturdy, healthy canes radiating from the bud union. In reality, this ideal is rarely achieved.

Most bushes do not have enough canes growing in just the right directions to be ideal. If the bush has only 2, 3, or 4 canes, it would be best to allow them all to remain, unless one of them truly is a nonproductive old cane. If the rose has 5 to 7 or more canes, you can then begin making decisions about which ones to remove to achieve a pleasing balance. For most rose bushes, an outcome similar to the diagram on the right would be desirable. If there are still old leaves clinging to any of the canes (which is not likely), remove them because old leaves that have over-wintered may be disease carriers. These leaves should come off easily with a slight pull.  

When you are satisfied that you’ve pruned away the nonproductive canes, spray your newly pruned bushes with a summer-use fungicide. Do not apply any dormant sprays after pruning. The most common dormant sprays contain chemicals at concentrations that may damage the young buds that have already begun to grow.

Many disease problems occur when the buds first begin to grow, which they are probably already doing. Fungus spores often over-winter on the canes and under the vegetative bud scales, which cover the dormant buds. They can infect the bush as the buds begin to break, unless a preventative fungicidal spray is used.

Spraying with fungicides should be repeated at 10 to 14 day intervals during wet or damp weather to help maintain disease free bushes.