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| I've been oh so happily pruning my roses lately, enjoying the mild temperatures and absence of precipitation. Was down in the shade garden where my happiest Hybrid Musks grow and did them yesterday. Last year we had snow on the ground for so much of the winter that I never did get around to pruning most of my roses, including the HMs, and also I have ongoing doubts about how to prune them, though I think that probably they need significant renewal by cutting out old canes on a regular basis. I first heard this here on the forum and my experience supports the idea. Right now I have several formerly lovely Hybrid Musks and I hope some drastic pruning this winter can bring them back to life. The problem is that our weather lately has been springlike, almost warm and with some sun, and these roses are putting out new growth. I'm afraid that pruning them now will stimulate them to put forth new canes which will then get frozen back in the frosts that sooner or later are going to arrive. Well...I made my choice. Roses that had only old canes and evidently needed a drastic renewal, I cut away some of the old canes, hoping to stimulate growth. Roses that were vigorous, with young canes, I cut dead growth and some of the oldest canes, then lightly pruned the young vigorous growth, leaving a more vigorous pruning for the end of winter. And now I cross my fingers and wait. For a renaissance, because these roses have been glorious in the past and I want to see them that way again. By the way, has anyone ever tried to grow 'Vanity' climbing through shrubs? I have a pyracantha hedge behind my plant and it shows a tendency to want to scramble up the hedge. 'Francesca' also shows climbing tendencies when it has support. Melissa |
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| I have only grown 'Francesca' as a climber due to lack of horizontal space. She does very well as such, but is also very vigorous, so I have to be vigilent to keep her trained. I'll be interested to hear about new growth is stimulated on your hybrid musks by cutting out some old canes. From my experience with two plants of 'Buff Beauty', I think I would agree that it could. Both grown as climbers. One is against a fence and has hardly been pruned at all the past several years, except to cut out dead stuff. It is practically in stasis, size-wise (something of a relief, considering my desperate battles to maintain control elsewhere). The other BB was growing up a tree and began impinging on a path and other plants, so I cut it back fairly hard. The surge of growth that inspired (multiple 10'+ canes the diameter of my thumb) was astounding and, of course, contrary to my objectives, to say the least. That plant of BB got edited out last year...I couldn't keep up and it was starting to overwhelm the tree it was in. |
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