Time to "Prune After Bloom" the Roses
Here at my Bedford, New York farm, it's time to "prune after bloom" the roses - meaning deadhead and trim all the faded flowers.
There are different pruning strategies for different times of the year, but overall the goals are the same - to keep the plants looking fresh and open, promote new growth and re-flowering, and to improve the overall health of the plant. Deadheading is one of the easiest forms of pruning - as blooms fade, just cut off the flower stems below the spent blossoms and above the first set of full, healthy leaves. Yesterday, my head gardener, Ryan McCallister, and our NYBG intern, Matthew Orego, pruned, groomed, fed, and watered the rose garden behind my greenhouse.
Enjoy these photos.
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- Just a few weeks ago, this garden looked like this – full of fragrant blooms. I planted more than 120 roses in this space and they’re all doing very well because of the nutritious soil and diligent maintenance.
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- Here, I have floribunda roses, hybrid tea roses, and shrub roses – mostly all soft creamy pink to lavender and yellow colors.
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- Look at the gorgeous, fragrant blooms – some were as big as the palm of one’s hand.
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- Hybrid tea roses, also called large-flowered roses, usually have only one flower per stem and tend to flower in three flushes from summer to late autumn. Floribundas or cluster-flowered roses have many flowers per stem and tend to repeat-flower continuously from summer to late autumn.
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- A rose is a woody perennial flowering plant of the genus Rosa, in the family Rosaceae. There are more than a hundred species and thousands of cultivars.
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- The leaves of the rose are described as “pinnate” – meaning there is a central rib and then leaflets off to each side, with one terminal leaflet. Rose leaves can have anywhere from two to 13 leaflets.
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- And rose stems are often armed with sharp prickles – they aren’t thorns at all. Unlike a thorn, a prickle can be easily broken off the plant because it is really a feature of the outer layers rather than part of the wood, like a thorn.
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- And depending on the variety, some can have more prickles than others.
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- Now, most of the blooms are faded, leaving plants looking more like this – a clear sign it is time to “prune after bloom.”
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- It’s time to prune them lightly and selectively to shape the bushes and control any unwanted growth. Ryan removes old and dying flowers from the plant, which encourages the shrub to flower again sooner by diverting the plant’s energy from seed head to more development.
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- Ryan also removes any suckers which have grown. Rose suckers are unauthorized branches that grow from the rootstock of a rose plant, rather than the flowering part. Ryan snips the sucker from the base.
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- Rose suckers can have different colored stems and less prickles than the main plants. Notice the reddish tint to this branch.
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- And when pruning, always cut at a 45-degree angle to help water from sprinklers or rain to run off of the shoot and avoid bacteria or fungi from growing.
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- As Ryan prunes, Matthew follows, raking the cut rose stems from each row.
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- Next, Ryan feeds the roses. On this day, Ryan sprinkles cup fulls of Epsom salt, a mineral compound of magnesium sulfate, which helps to improve nutrient uptake, bloom quality, and disease resistance. It also helps produce more lush, green leaves and more roses.
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- Reddish new growth on roses is normal for many varieties, including hybrid tea roses. The leaves have high levels of anthocyanins, a pigment molecule that causes red foliage in developing plants.
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- When the leaves are young, chlorophyll levels are lower. They increase as the leaves grow and develop under sunlight.
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- As the plant continues to grow, the leaves change color and become more green.
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- Finally, the entire garden gets a good watering. It is important to give roses one to two inches of water each week from early spring through fall and more when it is very hot and dry.
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- Around the perimeter, I planted boxwood I nurtured from bare-root cuttings. This rose garden looks great – pruned and groomed. Keeping up with plant maintenance will keep them healthy, prevent disease, and encourage beautiful, abundant flowering.
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