Running with Scissors - The Truth about Pruning Rose Bushes

The whole concept of pruning roses can become confusing and frustrating. Beginner gardeners have heard a lot of misinformation on rose pruning and so often err on the side of not pruning their plants at all. But this can be a mistake. If you have ever wanted to know the right technique for pruning rose bushes than read these tips to learn more.

What exactly does pruning do?

Pruning is basically removing canes that are unnecessary, dead, damaged or diseased from a rose plant. Pruning rose bushes is both an art and a skill. The art part comes in because pruning changes both the shape and size of the bush. The skill comes in making the pruning cuts correctly.

Pruning roses correctly can lead to a strong and healthy plant with lots of blooms and vigorous growth. A poorly pruned bush can become misshaped and prone to diseases.

Reasons for rose pruning

Tools for pruning rose bushes

You really only need three simple pieces of equipment in order to properly prune roses:

1) Hand Shears - Scissors or Anvil type. Bypass scissor type, require less hand strength to cut with but the anvil style can handle branches larger than 1/4 "diameter.

2) Loppers - If you have a larger rose bush or climbing or rambling bushes, you need to look for the lopper with the longest handles you can find. Like the shears they come in bypass or anvil style.

NOTE: never use hedge trimmers! These can create havoc with your rose bushes. Be patient and use the loppers.

3) Leather gloves - I have found the best rose gardener gloves is a nice, soft pair made of leather. Some gloves also have a long wrist cuff which can come in handy when working with thorny canes.

Pruning rose bushes techniques

Two methods for rose pruning are thinning and heading. Thinning cuts branches or canes back to the main branch or almost close to the ground. Thinning is a way to drastically remove parts of the plant to increase air circulation and sunlight penetration. This is also the method used to restore old growth rose shrubs.

Heading back is a method to cut the tips off of branches until you reach a good bud. Heading is used to shape the appearance of the plant and to control it over all size.

When pruning rose bushes you must cut at a 45 degree angle. Too sharp an angle or too close to a bud will cause it to dry out or not grow. Too shallow or straight a cut lets in the rot. All main branch cuts can be closed using white glue to prevent cane corers.

So now you have a good idea of why pruning roses is so important and some techniques for pruning rose bushes.