When and how to prune roses

Roses are popular for their year-round blooming characteristics and easy cultivation. In order to ensure that the roses have lush flowers, beautiful plant shapes, and vigorous growth, the key is to do a good job of pruning during the growing and dormant periods. Proper pruning can promote better branching and flowering of the plant. Let’s learn about the time and method of pruning roses.

1. Pruning time

Rose pruning is usually done during the winter dormancy period, but moderate pruning is also required during the growing season. Winter pruning is more thorough, while pruning during the growing season is relatively light.

2. Pruning techniques during the growing season

After the rose flowers wither, they should be pruned to a length of 10 to 20 cm above the base of the branch, and a healthy axillary bud should be selected to leave. This helps conserve nutrients and promotes a more vigorous plant. If you only remove the withered flowers and keep the branches, the branches will become thin and weak, and the flowers will be numerous but small, reducing the ornamental value. Timely and appropriate pruning can keep the plant compact and the flowers concentrated and colorful.

During the growth period, it is also necessary to remove buds and bud thinning, remove inward-growing buds, ensure even distribution of branches, and optimize ventilation and light conditions. When the flower buds appear, for roses with large flowers, only one flower bud is retained at each branch end, and the excess are removed in order to concentrate nutrients. For multi-flowering varieties, moderate bud thinning can make the flowering period more uniform.

3. Key points for pruning during dormancy

Pruning during the dormant period helps reduce nutrient loss. The main branches can be adjusted according to shaping needs, and diseased and weak branches, dead branches, crossed branches, overlapping branches, drooping branches, overly dense branches, and suckers at the base can be removed. When pruning, different degrees of pruning strategies should be adopted according to the characteristics of the rose variety and the required shape, including strong pruning, medium pruning and weak pruning.

Strong pruning is suitable for large flower species with weak growth or potted plants . Usually two-thirds of the plant is cut off, leaving 2 to 4 main branches. Medium pruning is suitable for varieties with balanced growth, evenly distributed branches and easy growth of new branches. It cuts off half of the whole plant. Weak pruning is suitable for plants with strong growth, and only one-third of the whole plant is cut off.

The above are the time and methods for pruning roses. Through these pruning methods, you can ensure that the roses grow healthily, have lush flowers and beautiful plant shapes.