with Don Trotter
Rose Pruning Tips
Hello fellow Earthlings and welcome to the rose garden. This is the first of a five part series on rose care that comes just in time for your early spring rose projects. In this first part we will be discussing types of pruning techniques used by most rose growers and the types of roses that usually receive pruning of this kind. So grab your pruning shears and let's take a look at those roses.
Don Trotter
Rose pruning is a simple process made complicated by all of the different schools of thought on the topic. If you remember four things you will always be a successful rose pruners, and your roses will be dazzling examples of your prowess. The four not so secrets are:
1. Keep the center of the bush clear of growth, like a big vase or bowl.
2. Remove all dead or decayed growth.
3. Keep some shape to your garden roses, be gentle with the cuts.
4. Remove crossing branches in favor of the stronger growth.
If you try and follow these four directives, a finer quality rose bush will certainly inhabit your garden spaces. When your finished pruning your roses be sure to seal the cuts you've made that are larger than a quarter of an inch in diameter. The best and the cheapest pruning sealer I have ever used for roses is good old white glue. Yup, Elmer's is a great sealer for your rose pruning projects. It dries clear, is flexible, and allows for natural scar tissue to form below the cut. And it's cheap! Here are the types of rose pruning most commonly used and the types of roses they are used on.
HARD PRUNING OR LOW PRUNING
Canes are cut back to three or four buds from the base or bud union. This leaves short sturdy canes of about 4 to 5 inches long.
Hard pruning is recommended for newly planted bush roses of the hybrid tea, grandiflora and floribunda tribes. Hard pruning is often used by growers to produce show blooms for exhibition.
This method is not good for established garden roses and should not be practiced. It can still be used to rejuvenated sickly plants and neglected ones, but hard pruning is no longer accepted as correct pruning.
MODERATE OR MEDIUM PRUNING
Canes are cut back to about half of their length. Weaker stems are cut back more depending on their location on the bush.
Moderate pruning is the accepted method for treatment of established garden roses. Floribundas, hybrid teas, grandifloras, and tree roses all respond best to this pruning practice. If the roses are fed well, you can expect show quality roses on beautifully shaped bushes.
LIGHT OR HIGH/LONG PRUNING
Canes are cut back to about two thirds of their length. This means that after removal of unwanted wood the remaining stems are merely tipped.
Light pruning is not generally recommended as it will produce spindly bushes and if practiced year after year will result in an early blooming bush with poor quality flowers.
HYBRID TEA ROSES
Newly Planted
Hard Pruning is required to build up a strong root system and to stimulate the growth of sturdy, fresh canes from close to the base of the bush.
Established Roses (12 months or older)
Moderate pruning is the best method for general garden display. For show blooms hard pruning is sometimes used. For very vigorous varieties light pruning is recommended.
FLORIBUNDA ROSES
Newly Planted
Where hybrid teas should be hard pruned to a height of between 4-6 inches, floribundas prefer a cane length of 6 inches
Established Roses (12 months or older)
Moderate pruning is the best way to prune floribundas, but some old stems are hard pruned to within a few inches of the ground, while new canes which arise from the area of the base last year are only lightly pruned. This method of varying stem height will ensure a long period of continuous bloom.
STANDARD OR TREE ROSES
Newly Planted
Hard pruning is recommended, but should be less drastic than pruning for new bush roses. Stem/cane length should be about 8 inches long.
Established Roses (12 months or older)
Moderate pruning is best to form a properly balanced head which will produce plenty of flowers. Hard pruning should be avoided on tree roses because the vigorous canes will affect the shape of the plant and make it less attractive.
MINIATURE AND SHRUB ROSES
No pruning is required other that the elimination of any dead or broken canes that may have occurred in transit.
Established Roses (12 months or older)
Very little pruning is necessary except for eliminating dead and sickly growth. Use scissors on miniatures instead of your pruning shears.
CLIMBING ROSES
Newly Planted
No pruning is necessary other than removal of dead canes and tips.
Established Roses (12 Months or older)
Little pruning is required apart from the removal of dead and distressed wood. Withered shoot tips with spent bloom on them should also be removed.
In special cases such as very vigorous hybrid teas, climbers and shrub roses, light pruning is the only recommended way to cut these plants.
PEST AND DISEASE CONTROL FOR ROSES
Hello Fellow Earthlings and welcome to the second of our five part series on rose care. This discussion will be focusing on pest and disease control. Let's get a look at those roses.
It is widely known that roses can be a real pain in the --------- if they want to be or are in any way not attended to. This is not so of a rose that is allowed to grow under natural condition without nitrogen fortified chemical fertilizers and harmful insecticides and fungicides. The truth of the matter is that roses can be very easy to tend to if they are cared for with a light hand during the growing season. The fewer things that a gardener does to shock a natural balance of things the fewer problems will arise as a result of that shock.
Chemical insecticides are only effective until the target pest develops a resistance to that chemical. Then it becomes necessary to alternate harmful substances to control an insect population that continually gets worse because of lack of competition and natural predators due to high concentrations of chemicals. The major rose pests that we encounter here in your rose garden can be controlled by establishing populations of two beneficial insects and periodic treatments with a bacteria and a tree sap extract. The two beneficial insects are the Green Lacewing and Trichogramma Wasps. These two insects will guard your roses against everything from Aphids to some Scales and Spider Mites. Lacewings are very active and voracious feeders who's host or target prey are aphids, mealybugs, whiteflies of some species, juvenile scale insects, and some spider mites. The tiny Trichogramma wasp is a parasite of caterpillars some species of budworm and will antagonize a number of other butterfly and moth species. These parasites do not have a stinger (no need to fear them), they have an ovipositor that lays her eggs inside the host. As the wasp larvae develop they use the host as a food supply.
The bacteria that I spoke of is Bacillus thuringiensis variety Kurstaki or Berliner. This product is often referred to as BT and is a paralyzing bacteria that affects many species of worm and caterpillar including the leaf skeletonizer worm. By paralyzing the stomach of its host this bacteria is very useful against its target pests.
The tree sap that I was referring to is Oil of the Neem Tree of India. The active substance in this sap (seed oil) has been named Azidirachtin after the botanical name of the tree. The extracted oils from the tissue and sap of this tree are very effective at repelling and keeping your rose bushes free of any sign of insects. Although it smells like hazelnuts to us it has the most repellent affect on pest insects. Neem oil is sold under the name Bio-Neem under the Safer label and Rose Defense under the Green Light label. These two products can be found at any garden supply store.
Controlling diseases in your rose garden is really not very difficult at all. There is no need for harmful fungicides that can cause severe physical problems or have a negative affect on outdoor pets and bees as well as wipe out entire earthworm populations from a single spraying. Balanced nutrition and a couple of minerals can keep your garden disease free without weekly exposure to chemicals.
Most diseases of plants will leave a healthy plant alone. It is the same with us, if we're healthy we don't get sick. Plants also have immune systems. This is where a balanced diet that contains the proper amount of copper, sulfur, potassium, magnesium and calcium will ensure that certain very commonplace and damaging fungi don't get a foothold in your garden.
Potassium is very important for resistance against powdery mildew and rust on roses. Not in some crazy amount that is available to the plant in five seconds after application but instead long lasting natural sources from mineral deposits or from other natural source. When potassium is broken down in the soil by a healthy soil it will actually help to prevent the onset and spreading of powdery mildew and rust, which are tough problems for most chemical gardeners to control. High calcium levels along with an abundance of naturally available magnesium will cause your roses to produce thick healthy canes without problems with of slow root development in our heavy soils. Copper and sulfur are the two elements, which I use as a spray fungicide if absolutely necessary. Other than dormant spraying minimal spraying should be necessary to prevent fungus and disease if the roses are fed naturally.
Got questions? Fax the Doc at (760) 632-8175 or Email him at Curly@mill.net
Don Trotter's Natural gardening columns appear nationally in environmentally sensitive publications. Look for Don's books Natural Gardening A-Z on sale now and The Complete Natural Gardener coming in April from Hay House at bookstores everywhere and at all online booksellers and check out Don's columns in Hearst's Healthy Living Archive1 coming in the March 2000 issue.
For your reading and learning pleasure, we have included previous columns by Don Trotter in the Gardening Archives
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