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| I have a few Easy Elegance Sunrise Sunset that are so damn vigorous. Darn things are only 2 years in the ground and they are up to 8' wide.
Any concern with pruning these back to about 5' (especially those canes on crack)? I was debating whether I could tag along on another recent post but those plants where new transplants and a full zone hardier. My roses just finished up with a heavy bloom. Its going to be pretty quite warm (above average) the next 10 days. I have a grouping of Coral Drift as well but I just need to prune back the spent blooms. Japanese Beetles are still active, beheaded quite a few tonight. I was quite proud of myself as I went 10 for 10! |
Follow-Up Postings:
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| The local nursery advises against pruning any more due to the drought and japanese beetles. I had to prune a few canes that were in the walkway. |
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- Posted by flaurabunda 6a, Central IL (My Page) on Tue, Aug 28, 12 at 9:30
| One thing you might want to consider is giving them some support before the end of this week, if you have anything that might be damaged by an extended period of high winds. It looks like Isaac's going to run right up Illinois and give us quite a few hours of rain & winds, most likely in the 25 mph range. |
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| The main concern about late pruning is that severe pruning might cause plants to waste some stored energy by sending up fall basals that won't survive the winter. This is not a worry with large, vigorous plants that have energy to spare. I don't see any potential harm in cutting a big plant back by a third. |
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| I'd say you could dead head still but I wouldn't suggest any kind of hard pruning. If they seem overly large and/or floppy going into winter stake the plant and tie up the canes so they won't whip in the wind all winter. Then in the spring you'll know how far you'll have to cut back from winter kill. If you cut them off now you'll lose all the new growth for sure and you'll be starting out next spring with stumps. |
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| Hi whaas ~ I just ran into *Easy Elegance- Sunrise Sunset* in search of a *EE-Yellow Submarine*(that I have) mary lu posted in the Cottage Garden Forum ~ I read briefly & just looked at the posted pix ~ absolutely beautiful! I wonder if yours look just like hers ~ I think mary lu's was planted as a hedge. I came here because of an OSO Easy Strawberry Crush that kept producing longish young stems w/ very little bloom production unlike the other OSO E cousins that flush blooms in frequent regularity after short rest periods despite heat-wave & drought ~ was wondering about pruning EE-SC to grow thicker/stronger stems! Would love to see pix. MY EE-YS has grown in leaps but nothing like your EE-SS. |
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| Hi, mary_lu here... :-) Sunrise Sunset does tend to throw long canes in the fall. I usually just leave them unless they are growing out into the sidewalk. If they are, then I cut them back. Haven't had a problem doing that yet. In fact I planted 2 more SS in my garden room this summer. They are doing pretty good considering it was July when planted and we are having an exceptionally HOT summer here with lots of humidity. They were on clearance and had not been watered well so the soil was pretty hard packed. But lots of new growth and blooms, so hoping all is well. The picture below was taken in late May this year. These were planted in 2006 or 2007 I believe. They are blooming now as well, but do have some long canes as I have come to expect in fall. If you would like, I can take a picture tomorrow night and post it? Let me know. |
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| Wow, thanks for the gorgeous pictures, mary_lu. How big are your plants and how much repeat bloom do you get? |
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| All, thanks for the feedback. I'd say that mounding habit is much more desirable! I might deadhead as the blooms lasted a bit longer than expected. This picture is very washed out from my cell phone. This is the third flush this year. The blooms were a bit more vivid (flushed 3 weeks ago) than earlier in the year. Likely due to the sun being less intense.
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| Those all look beautiful! |
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| mary, those are beautiful! whaas, to give you an idea, you should do your last hard pruning 6 weeks from your earliest frost date. For instance, we have a normal frost date of mid-October, so I'm cutting back my roses now for the last time. I'm in zone 7 and we regular have roses until November/early December if we don't get a hard frost. The thing you want to avoid is cutting back and having a lot of new growth and you get hit with a frost. That can be very damaging. Even though it seems warm now, we are getting less and less sunlight hours each day, and the roses will stop growing and putting out blooms. If you are concerned about the long canes, you can 'top' your roses after the first hard frost. That just means you cut back and tall or lose canes so they don't blow around in the winter winds and get damaged. |
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| Thats strange that your first frost is mid-October in NE GA. Perhaps its because I'm 20 miles west of the lake but our first frost is typically mid-October sometimes late October. Thanks for all the feedback everyone! |
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