Roses need love, too: Prune soon

The gift of red roses on Valentine’s Day is a classic way to express affection. More than 250 million roses are produced annually for this day of flowers, chocolates and love, according to the Society of American Florists.

However, when I think of roses on Valentine’s Day, I am dreaming of a beautiful show of roses in my garden when the first blooms appear in April. Each year, Feb. 14 is marked on my calendar as the day to prune my rose bushes in preparation for the upcoming growing season.  

Pruning is essential for roses to thrive and put on a floral display. In addition to promoting growth and encouraging flowering, pruning helps to ensure environmental conditions roses need, such as good air circulation and sun exposure. Air circulation reduces incidences of fungal diseases like black spot by allowing foliage to dry quickly. Flower production is directly related to full sunlight.

Keep these rose pruning principles in mind:

Use proper tools. Sharp bypass-type pruners and loppers, which have a scissor-like action and don’t crush the stem, are recommended. A pruning saw may be needed for large, older canes. Leather gloves will help to protect your hands.

Sanitize cutting tools. To avoid spreading possible disease from one stem or plant to another, sterilize the blades between cuts using rubbing alcohol (70%), Lysol or a mild bleach solution.

Make cuts in relation to the buds on the stem. Cut ¼-inch above a bud eye and at a 45-degree angle away from it. Since new growth will emerge from the bud, choose a bud facing out from the center of the plant.

Remove dead and diseased wood. After making a cut, examine the inside of the cut cane. If the pith is brown or black, continue to cut until healthy green or white pith shows.

Encourage good air circulation within the plant. Remove crossing branches and branches growing toward the center of the plant. 

Favor healthy, larger canes. Prune away weak, spindly stems. If the rose bush is a hybrid tea or grandiflora variety, remove any cane whose diameter is smaller than a pencil. 

Prune according to rose variety.  The general rule-of-thumb is to reduce rose canes by at least a third. Weaker varieties and young plants should be pruned lightly, while vigorous varieties may be pruned more severely. Hard pruning yields fewer but larger blooms. For a colorful garden display, landscape roses should be maintained in a bushier form to produce an abundance of smaller flowers.

February is the best month of the year to plant rose bushes as well as to prune them! Perhaps a new rose bush that produces beautiful blooms for months would make the perfect Valentine’s Day gift — even better than cut flowers that last only a few days.

Kathy Hensley is the Agriculture and Natural Resources Program Assistant for University of Georgia’s Bibb County Extension. If you have other gardening or landscape questions, call Bibb County Extension at 478-310-5350 or email us at bibb.extension@uga.edu. 

For more information, see the UGA Extension publication Selecting and Growing Roses in Georgia.