Pruning Roses: If You Don't Know How, Just Follow This and You Can't Go Wrong

For anyone who has grown roses, there is no need to stress again how important pruning is for rose blooming. Gardeners who know how to prune roses correctly and in good time always end up with full, well-shaped plants, new growth, vigorous basal shoots, a surge of flower buds, and finally the result: roses blooming all over the branches.

But although there are many people growing roses and countless numbers who love them, the number who truly know how to prune is probably not many. So how should roses be pruned to achieve maximum blooming? If you really don't know how, just follow the steps below and you can't go wrong.

1. Pruning Hybrid Tea Roses

This type of rose is mostly grown outdoors in the north, and in winter most need cold protection. Carry out heavy pruning before winter arrives, choose sharp garden shears, and apart from keeping the main trunk at the base of the plant clump, keep only 3-4 lateral buds at the base of each side branch, then cut it back short; gardeners in temperate regions need to thin out this type of rose, keeping 5-6 thicker side branches per plant and cutting away the rest. Cut the retained side branches back short, keeping 5-6 buds on each branch.

For potted Hybrid Tea roses, carry out heavy pruning each year before winter begins, keeping only 2 lateral buds at the base of each large side branch, then cut it back short. Hybrid Tea roses continually send out new branches throughout the year, and flower buds differentiate at the tips of the new branches; as the branches lengthen, the flower buds keep swelling. As long as new branches keep emerging throughout the year, they can bloom continuously.

Therefore, gardeners should cut back promptly after each bloom, and must not cut back after the new shoots have emerged, otherwise the flower buds will be cut off. Cutting back promotes the axillary buds lower down the branch to sprout and form more flowering branches. When cutting back, generally keep only 3-4 leaves. This allows the 2 lateral buds below the cut to sprout at the same time and become 2 flowering branches. If you cut back too lightly and leave the branch too long, usually only the bud at the cut will sprout, forming just 1 flowering branch.

2. Floribunda Roses

For this type of rose, the pruning principle is to maintain a smaller plant shape and its characteristic of blooming profusely. Because they grow weakly and each flowering branch carries a large number of flowers, to ensure bloom quality, plants grown in the ground are generally kept to 6-8 main branches, with the rest thinned out. Do not prune hard after flowering, to avoid stimulating the axillary buds to sprout.

After winter begins, prune heavily, keeping 4-6 stout side branches per plant, keeping 2 lateral buds on each side branch, then cut back short. If the retained branches are too long, the following year only the tips of the branches will sprout and bloom, while the lower parts become bare, losing their ornamental value.

3. Grandiflora Roses

This type of rose is tall and is often used as a background feature in gardens and courtyards. They are strongly double-flowered and have strong axillary bud sprouting ability, so cutting back should not be too heavy and more lateral buds should be retained. When winter begins, since these varieties are relatively cold-hardy and generally need no cold protection, the original plant height can be maintained.

4. Climbing Roses

This type of rose grows fast, and some one-year-old branches can reach 6-7 m in length. The pruning principle is to retain a certain amount of canes, remove overly dense canes from the base, then set up a trellis or support and train them by hand. After flowering each year and before new flower buds differentiate, remove aged branches from the base.

5. Growing Tree-form Roses

The pruning principle for tree-form roses is to choose 1 stout main branch, remove all the other branches so that nutrients are concentrated in supplying this main branch to thicken and grow, and at the same time support it with a stake, cutting it back short at a height of 1-1.5 m so that the 3-5 lateral buds near the top sprout and form side branches.

In early spring of the second year, cut the side branches back short, leaving branches about 30 cm long, and keep 3 lateral buds on each side main branch, removing the excess lateral buds; in this way the shaping forms 9 side branches, creating a "three forks and nine tops" headed tree form. After that, only thin out and pinch the new side branches, letting them send out flowering branches freely, continuously enlarging the crown so that the flowers become ever more abundant.