Pruning Garden Roses

We receive lots of questions about pruning roses and how we do it. While we’re the first to say we’re still learning, here’s how we do it!

We farm in Zone 9 so we do have some frost which typically starts in late November and that’s what we consider the end of our growing season. From late November through early January, our roses go pretty much untouched by us other than some waters and inspections.  

Then, by mid-January, once our frosts stop, we begin the pruning process. We’ve been really fortunate to have Devin, Victor and Erin (Devin’s sister) help lead the charge on our pruning for the last 3 years. Erin flies out from her farm in Virginia and spends 3 weeks at the ranch.

Erin in the jungle of Princess Charlene de Monaco before the prune.

Prep

To prune our roses which have all been the ground about 3 years or less, we prepare the following:

Sharpened pruners. Our favorite is Felco F2.

Rose gloves. Our favorites are Acdyion Gardening Gloves.

Bucket filled with 80% Water + 20% bleach

Tarp and/or large garbage can/tran

Twine

Drew and Devin preparing to prune roses in year 1 of the Marie field.

Our approach is:

1. Dip pruners in bleach before we start each plant to avoid spreading any disease.

2. Prune back all canes to about 3 ft tall. Cut cane at a 45 degree angle. We know people swear by looking for the right part of the cane but have yet to see any impact by following that guideline or ignoring it in all honesty, so we just stick to the 3 ft rule.

3. Cut off any hardened cane, even if you have to go lower than 3 ft.

4. Cut back any canes thinner than a pencil on plants that have been in the ground for 3+ years. For younger plants, we thin the canes based on our best judgment and making sure there are not too many crossing through the middle of the bush. It’s important to make sure there will be air flow once leaves grow back through the the plant to avoid the spread of fungus and disease.

5. Remove all leaves from all remaining canes.

6. Dispose of cut canes and leaves OFF-SITE. We pile them on tarps that we put into our dump trailer and take offsite. Do not leave them on your property as they can spread diseases to your bushes.

7. We then add mulch around the base of each bush to help keep in moisture. Our mulch comes from Oaks around our property.

8. Then we do a Copper spray within a week of pruning and then repeat weekly for 2 more weeks. The copper spray is anti-fungal to kill all the bad stuff before the new season and growth begins.

Victor carrying pruned canes and leaves away from the Ruth field.

Gwen calls this phase of the year, ‘Rose Skeletons’. I think she’s right!

Pruned roses in the Ruth

We complete the prune and spraying by early February and our roses begin to bud again quite quickly due to our weather. By May, we’re back in full production!  As counterintuitive as it is, cutting back the rose bushes, really does make them grow back bigger and stronger! Many of our bushes grow to be over 6 ft tall by mid-Summer.

Also, don’t forget to start proactive Aphid treatment as soon as you have leaves on your rose bushes. For us, that is early-mid March. We’ll post about that in the coming weeks and what we do as well.

We’re so grateful to have Victor and Devin on the team to lead the prune!