Rose pruning made easy

July is winter’s peak in South Africa, but that doesn’t mean your garden has to sleep!

The main gardening task in July is winter pruning, especially Rose bushes, which will result in glorious full bloom of colour in Spring. Rose pruning in winter when the plant is dormant will allow the flowering buds to form new shoots and leaves. When the temperature rises in springtime, your rose bushes will be ready to flower. If you delay the pruning to end August, the rose bushes will probably only flower late October. Here are some tips from GARDENA to perfect your rose pruning this season.

Rose pruning

A bed or bush roses are roses which have several blossoms on one stem, whereas hybrid tea roses have only one blossom per stem. The cut is the foundation for a strong and vibrant plant with lush flowering. It generates newly growing timber, and the rose can reject diseases a lot better. If roses are not cut regularly, the flowerage gets weaker and the rose will get bald. Using a good quality secateur will improve the cutting result and not damage the branches. GARDENA’s range of secateurs, with powerful cutting blades offer excellent results reducing plant infections.

Use quality tools

When cutting back your roses, there’s not too much you can do wrong. It is especially important that the rose is cut strongly so that the plant can come back with vigorous growth – except if the rose is too old or has too poor nutrition. When cutting too cautiously, the wood in the lower area gets old and thick while the rose gets more susceptible to disease and breakage. For soft green shoots, use the GARDENA bypass secateur. If you are tackling dry branches, use the GARDENA anvil secateur designed to cut up to 24mm thickness.

Remove frost protection

Before you can start with cutting back your roses you need to free them from their frost protection of leaves and brushwood. Roses will sprout stronger if it has been cut back aggressively depends on the growing power of the species. After a massive cut the rose sprouts just a few but strong new shoots whereas a weak cut causes the sprout of many thin shoots. Strong pruning means cutting down the rose to 10 – 20 cm above the ground.

Strong pruning

You should always cut the rose stem above an outwardly facing eye. Eyes describe the sprouting points of the branches. The cut should always be diagonal, not straight. Shoots that grow into the interior of the rose and those which cross each other should be cut off completely. Dead wood is removed at the base, in a way that you cut a bit in the adjacent healthy wood. This is important because germs like to settle in the dead wood. Also, the dead wood robs space for new shoots, so get rid of it. You can recognize it by its dryly brown colour. Wild shoots which sprout below the bud union should also be removed.

Care after pruning

Make sure you give your roses some care and attention after pruning. Seal the cuts to reduce infection or spray the plants with an insectide. From August onwards, fertilise your bushes by using a balanced rose fertilizer and water thoroughly. Composting is highly recommended – use compost or mulch around the root of the roses. Make sure your roses gets at least 6 to 8 hours of sun light and good air circulation.

Plant and hand protection

As with your roses, it is also a good time to prune other flowering plants which will get your garden ready for Spring blooms. As you have taken care to protect your plants, so should you protect your hands. Use a good quality glove that will allow you efficiency whilst tasking any pruning task. GARDENA’s rose gloves are specially designed with Kevlar which prevents torns from breaking through the fabric.

Once your pruning is completed and plants nourished, you have to now sit back and wait for your garden to come alive in Spring with vibrant colours.

Visit www.garden.com/garden_inspiration for more handy gardening tips.

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Featured Image: Supplied