Rose care including pruning

Rose Care
Pruning

Why Prune Roses
Encourage new growth and bloom
Remove dead wood
Improve air circulation
Shape the plant

Tools You'll Need
By-pass pruners
Long-handled Loppers
Thick Gloves (preferably long ones)

Rose Pruning Basics:
-Use clean, sharp tools
-Look at the overall plant, but begin pruning from the base of the plant.

-Prune to open the center of the plant to light and air circulation
-Make your cuts at a 45-degree angle, about 1/4 inch above a bud (node) that is facing toward the outside of the plant. The cut should slant away from the bud. New growth always comes from the very top bud you cut to. The direction of the new growth is determined by the direction the bud points.

-Make sure it is a clean cut (not ragged)
-Remove all broken, dead, dying or diseased wood (Any branches that look dry, shriveled or black. Cut until the inside of the cane is white.)

-Remove any weak or twiggy branches thinner than a pencil
-If cane borers are a problem, seal the cut with a white glue, such as Elmer’s.
-Remove sucker growth below the graft (the swelling at the base of the canes, where the bush was budded onto the root stock).
-Remove any remaining foliage
The best time for pruning roses is from mid December through mid February. In this area our roses are usually dormant at this time of the year, thus the best time to prune. Waiting too long into February risks the danger of the buds breaking dormancy. Failure to prune our roses may result in plants with twiggy growth that are unable to support large blooms.
In zone 9 and above, where roses won't be subject to freezing temperatures, watch for fungal diseases that can creep in with the cooler, wet weather. Since your roses are still growing and setting buds, November is a good time for a light feeding.
Pruning Hybrid Tea Roses
Start by removing old, winter damaged or diseased wood, cutting it back to a healthy point. You will want to create a somewhat cup shaped plant by removing center stems, and branches pointing inwards. This will admit more light and fresh air, and help to prevent mildew and disease. Cut the remaining stems to about 1/2 of their original length, leaving the stronger stems longer than the younger, thin ones. Hard pruning will result in fewer long stemmed blooms than light pruning, but if it necessary you can cut some of the older stems back to within 6 inches of the base.
Pruning Floribundas and Grandifloras
Remove all cris-crossed stems, and cut the remaining stems at various lengths leaving the center stems longer than the outer ones to form the desired shaped plant. Pruning the canes at different lengths will help to insure continuous blooming.
Pruning Ramblers
Ramblers grow a completely new set of blooming canes each year. The flowers are formed on year old canes, which should be cut back to within 2-3 inches of their base when they are finished blooming. This will allow the plant to devote its energy into producing the new shoots that will bear the next years flowers.
Pruning Climbers
Climbing roses resent hard pruning. Remove any dead or diseased canes, other than that you should only do light pruning. Climbers should be trained to grow in a more fan shaped pattern rather than upward growth. If it becomes necessary, the canes can be shortened at any time of the year.
Pruning Miniature Roses
Miniature roses need very little pruning. Just prune them to the desired shape. Cut any new shoots which have emerged from below the soil line to about 1/2 its length. When the branches finish flowering, cut them back to a new outward facing bud.
Pruning Tree roses
Never prune the main upright stock of a tree rose. All pruning cuts would be made using the graft at the top of the tree stock, as the guide from which the pruning distances are determined. In other words the bushy head of the tree rose is what needs pruning. Make the pruning cuts according to the type of rose that is grafted onto the tree stock.

These pruning tips apply to established rose bushes. These tips do not apply to new bareroot plants. Newly planted roses should be pruned very lightly just to remove dead, diseased, broken, or twiggy growth.

After completely cleaning the rose beds of all prunings apply a clean up spray. If the plants are completely dormant a dormant spray can be used as a clean up spray for overwintering insects, spider mites, and fungal diseases. Dormant sprays for disease control fall into two groups -- sulfur or copper based formulations. If you use a copper based spray, make sure that it contains at least 50% copper. If you use a sulfur based spray (such as lime sulfur), make sure that you wash your sprayer thoroughly and do not mix other pesticides with it, as there might be some incompatibility. For insects, dormant sprays are mainly made of fine oils such as Ortho's Volck Oil. Oils work on certain insects and mites such as scale insects, aphids, fruit-tree leafroller eggs, and twospotted mites. If you had problems with these pests, then go ahead and apply the Volck oil. Please read the labels on the dormant spray containers and follow the directions very carefully.
I recommend using a combination dormant spray made up of fixed copper (Kocide or Microcoop) with Volck oil as a cleanup spray after winter pruning my garden. I use this combination dormant spray on all my fruit trees, berry vines, and roses. I prefer to use copper as a dormant spray because of its action on bacteria and on fungi, especially downy mildew.
Note: Some rosarians recommend sealing the ends of pruned canes in order to prevent "cane borers". Instead, I recommend that efforts be made in keeping the aphids under control in the home garden. The two main "cane borers" that are common in most gardens thus far seen, are dependent on the aphids for food (directly or indirectly) for their larvae in the nesting burrows in the rose canes. Therefore if the aphids are under control, you get rid of the food source and the "cane borer" wasps go somewhere else where the food (aphids) are more plentiful.

Dead-Heading:
Dead-heading is the removal of faded flowers before they can develop seed. Dead-heading is a form of summer or day-to-day pruning. Cut the flower stem back to an outward-facing bud above a five-leaflet or seven-leaflet leaf.

This "rule" applies best to plants that are vigorous. If the plant is weak or small, you may not want to cut off as much material. Each time you remove this much wood you are removing a lot of the food-making ability of the plant. This method works well for most recurrent-blooming types of roses. Flowers should not be cut after October 1 to allow the plant to begin hardening off for the winter. Dead-heading is also a good way to lessen the likelihood of diseases such a botrytis from becoming a problem.

A sucker or a Basal break?
Don't mistake a sucker with a basal break. A basal break is new growth coming from the bud graft. It is sometimes reddish, depending on the variety of the rose, it is soft and succulent with no thorns. It is to be prized, as this is the next generation of blooms for your rose bush. Traditionally here in Southern California, the root stock on a grafted rose is from a rose called, Dr. Huey. Sometimes this root stock will send out a new cane, which is called a sucker. A sucker, is growth coming from beneath the bud graft or bud union, that knob above the root structure of a grafted rose. The reason for it is that one or more of the buds on the rootstock was not cut completely out, so this bud keeps wanting to send out its own growth, often with 5- or 7-leaflet leaf clusters. Look at the leaves growing on this cane. It will look different and if let to grow at the very end you will get a small red rose. You need to dig down in the soil and cut this growth off as close to the roots as possible, as it will just take strength from the grafted rose. There are own root roses which grow only on their own canes. They do not get suckers so their new basal breaks will come from under the ground. Grafted roses have a bump of wood where the canes were grafted into. Look for this formation to determine whether the rose is grafted or not. It also may grow each season if not cut completely out.