Find your pruning groove!
When we tackle an activity that we don’t understand we might feel like we are lost in a foreign land with no compass or dictionary. Pruning instructions can be hard for novice rose gardeners to follow because they don’t know the rose terminology. Have you wondered what a ‘bud-eye’ is, where it is, why it is important and what all the fuss is about the direction it is facing? Here is a pruning compass and dictionary to help you find your pruning groove.
PRUNING COMPASS
Why do we prune?
Pruning revitalizes our roses and prompts healthy growth
We grow roses for their blooms. Strong, healthy and new canes are productive canes that produce more roses than old canes and support the growth of larger blooms and clusters of blooms.
We can identify young canes because they are usually green and smooth. Older canes are generally craggy, rougher in texture and grayish brown in color. We prune out old, diseased or damaged canes. We also remove crossing canes.
Why do we remove old, diseased, damaged and crossing canes? There are several reasons. First, we want to ensure that the strong, new, healthy canes are not hampered in their growth. Second, we want to open the plant up to light and air which minimizes disease and pest infestations. Third, we want to improve the appearance of the bush. Fourth, crossing canes can become intertwined and obstruct quality blooms and new canes. In addition, cane wounds caused by the thorns on crossing canes allow fungal pathogens to enter the cane which can open the plant up to cane disease. When canes are crowded close to each other, the larger cane is kept, and the less desirable cane is removed.
Most important of all, we prune out less desirable canes because we want to encourage the growth of new fresh canes known as basal breaks. For this reason, when we remove the cane, we don’t leave a stub. We stimulate and open up room for these basal breaks by sawing old or less desirable canes with our pruning saw down flush at the bud union. BUT before we cut or saw we must check to ensure the older cane does not have a newer, productive, well-positioned secondary cane emanating from it further up the bush.
This is also a good opportunity to look for shoots that are growing close to the bush but are not growing from the bud union. These shoots are very likely to be suckers which are growing from the rootstock of a graftedrose. The sucker is not a cane or stem you want to keep and should be dug out. If you are not sure if it is a sucker, observe it for a few weeks to see if its foliage and flowers and growth habit look different from the grafted rose. There is no bud union on an own-root rose and an own-root rose will not have suckers
How do we prune?
How low do we go?
In San Diego, we prune our roses from mid-December to mid-February and we do not do a ‘heavy pruning’. We usually cut one-third off the height of our hybrid teas, and one-quarter off the height of our floribundas, polyanthus, shrubs and David Austin roses. That’s the general rule. But each rose is examined on a one-on-one basis. A stem that is thinner than the diameter of a pencil will not produce the bloom or cluster of blooms we want. So, we dispose of the thin leggy stems and wimpy dog legs, and we cut further down to a thicker stem.
Climbers Pruning is performed differently on climbing roses. The main canes are not pruned unless they are dead or damaged. Climbers bloom off lateral shoots. New, flexible canes are trained and tied horizontally to prompt lateral growth. The laterals are pruned so that only two or three bud eyes remain.
Look for the outward-facing bud eye. Having figured out approximately how much to cut off, we make each cut at about one-quarter inch above an outward facing bud eye which prompts the rose to grow in an outward direction and away from its center. This facilitates air circulation and lessens disease. When we cut a cane, the pith should be creamy white. If it isn’t we go further down the cane to another outward-facing bud eye. A few weeks after pruning, you may discover that some inward facing bud eyes have sprouted new growth. While this new growth is still soft, we remove it by thumb-pruning which helps to maintain a clear open center on our rose plant.
Get rid of old leaves and disease. We finish up by stripping off all the remaining leaves so the rose starts the new year free of the disease and insects which may still be lingering on its old leaves. We dispose of all clippings, leaves and petals around the base of the plant to get rid of dormant spores of fungi and over-wintering pests.
Dormant spray. If you want to dormant spray with a horticultural oil or insecticidal soap, you should do so immediately after pruning and before any bud eyes develop as the spray can harm them. Soaps and oils smother overwintering scales and insect eggs and are least harmful to beneficial insects.
PRUNING DICTIONARY
Bud eye. Leaflet sets on a rose spiral around the rose stem. Above each set of leaflets there is a bud eye. A bud eye, which resembles a small reddish bump, is easiest to see when we pull off a leaflet set. Each bud eye is the beginning of a new cane, stem or flower. When we prune, we are instructed to make our cut one-quarter inch above an outward facing bud eye. This cut prompts the new growth to grow outward and achieves the purpose of minimizing disease as it opens up the center of the bush to light and air.
Bud union. On a grafted rose, the roots of the rose are grafted or budded with a bud from another variety. The bud union is the swollen junction between the roots and the canes.
Dog legs. Stem-on-stems are generally thin and result in small blooms. They are called ‘dog legs’ by rosarians. Stems that are thinner than the diameter of a pencil will not produce the bloom or cluster of blooms we want. We cut out wimpy dog legs and prune further down to thicker more substantial stems whichencourages larger blooms and larger clusters of blooms.
Basal breaks are desirable strong new growth that originate from the bud union and become productive canes. We can promote the growth of basal breaks with pruning and good rose care. Don’t leave stumps when you cut out dead, old, damaged or crossing canes. Instead, open up space at the bud union for basal breaks by sawing out undesirable canes flush at the bud union.
Lateral shoots. When canes on climbers are trained to grow horizontally, side shoots (laterals), grow off the main canes and produce flowers.
Pith is the soft creamy colored inner portion of the rose stem.
Own root. A rose propagated from a cutting so that both roots and stems belong to one and the same rose.
Sucker. Any growth arising from below the bud union on a grafted or budded plant. This growth is that of the rootstock rose and should be removed. A sucker will impair the vigor of the grafted rose.
Thumb pruning. A few weeks after pruning, new, soft inward growing growth can be removed easily with just your thumb and index finger. This easy task is known as thumb pruning and facilitates keeping the bush open to air and sun.
