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| According to the weather guy, we've had the warmest March in Kansas City history. I believe it. I haven't had the chance to prune my roses yet and I noticed yesterday some of them are budding up already. This is unheard of for March for this area.
Maybe I'll just prune them after their first bloom flush. Or maybe not at all. Any harm in not pruning them at all? I do have a few that have never gotten over a foot tall, and maybe it would do them some good. What do you use to prune canes that are way too big to cut with pruners? Would loppers tear the cane up? Thanks, Deanna |
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| I would wait till after the first flush. Whether not-pruning causes problems just depends. Some roses I don't prune at all, while others are OK skipping a year. Very tall hybrid teas and other upright growers need cutting back periodically or they are apt to break over. I use loppers, and anvil loppers at that, with no evident problems. You can saw very thick stems. A keyhole saw is handy in the rose garden. |
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- Posted by phil_schorr z6St.Louis (My Page) on Sat, Mar 31, 12 at 22:43
| Have you started with your spraying program yet? If not, you should. I've been pruning my miniatures and see that several of them have blackspot already. What a crazy year! |
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- Posted by gardenfanatic MO zone5b (My Page) on Sat, Mar 31, 12 at 23:14
| I noticed blackspot already too. Going to be a challenging year! Deanna |
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| You can just cut out any dead wood now and wait until after the first bloom to shape them if you like. I rarely hard prune anything any more. I just prune off anything that looks like winter kill and leave the rest. The roses seem to bloom sooner when I do that instead of pruning them all down short in the spring. I use regular loppers to cut the big canes and, if necessary, a hand pruning saw for really BIG stuff. |
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| I normally use a Felco 600 pruning saw for the big canes. To avoid damaging the other canes, it helps to wrap them with cloth. Not that I need to do this--I'm pretty good with a hand saw after reducing a ton of maple to firewood. |
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