New house - help with roses please

16 years ago

Hi Everyone!

I just bought my first house and the previous owner had 4 beautiful rose bushes at the front of the house. The bushes are all about 4 feet tall right now, but I heard that they grow over 10 feet once they get going!

I am an avid container gardener, and I am very excited to try my hand at roses. I have read up on how to prune roses, but I just would like someone to help confirm.

I believe I have 3 or 4 different types of roses, the leaves all look the same. How should I go about pruning them? My idea was to cut back any dead or dry looking wood. In addition I was going to cut back anything thinner than a pencil. I know I should start at the bottom and work my way up. Do I need to get rid of all leaves? I think I already have some red stems coming up - should I leave those, or cut back?

Any help would be very much appreciated.

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Comments (4)

classytchr64
16 years ago
Iohmzoned, I'm pretty new to roses, but I know Youtube has some good videos from Paul Zimmerman on pruning. Paul used to own an excellent mail order rose nursery. Hope this helps. Leslie
diane_nj 6b/7a
16 years ago
Could you send me an e-mail and let me know where you are in PA? In addition to Paul's excellent videos, there are terrific Consulting Rosarians in PA who can be of help.
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jwcoulter
16 years ago
Look for any scarring-- it's a brownish oval or ovals on the canes--it indicates canker
Look for any black patches, that means black spot.

Both of these can overwinter. Cut the canes down until there is no more of these left.

In general, go to knee high--on regular--you'll have to check on the tall varieties.

Cut the canes to the bottom in the middle--try to do a circle the wagons--no canes on the inside--this allows airflow and lessens the chance of fungal diseases like black spot.

Look for cane's that look 'different' really new, but not like the young canes--look for these odd balls growing out just a little lower than the graft knot. They are likely to be suckers and won't flower--just sap strength.

I've had people ask me to look at their roses--they say, I only get this small pink flowers--Hahaha. The flowering part on the top died, and they didn't know it. The rootstock lived and they thought it was their rose.

Since it's a new house and you may not know if the owner knew roses, this might be the case. Bare rootstocks will grow very nicely. The flowers are just plain and tiny.

jw coulter
diane_nj 6b/7a
16 years ago
Don't do any hard pruning without know what types of roses that you have. You cannot prune shrub/floribunda/antique roses that same way that you would hybrid teas (these are the ones that look like florist roses). All of the books assume hybrid teas.

Yes, start out by removing the dead and damaged canes. You actually want to start at the top and work your way down. since you don't know what types they are, I would take a conservative approach to pruning. And, you should not have to remove the leaves, they will drop off when they are no longer useful.

When you say "red stems coming up", where on the plant are these coming from?

Here is a link that might be useful: Penn Jersey Consulting Rosarians