Comments on: Braving the Thorns Part 2: Pruning Your Dormant Rose

By: February Monthly Household Checklist | Fazzolari Custom Homes & Renovations

Tue, 02 Feb 2010 16:39:00 +0000

[...] Prune roses – This is the time of year to do it, as it spurs the rose to a more vigorous growing season. If you don’t know how, check out this article, which includes a great instructional video: Braving the Thorns Part 2: Pruning Your Dormant Roses. [...]

By: Anna/Flowergardengirl

Anna/Flowergardengirl — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 05:56:10 +0000

I have Knock Out roses and in my part of NC zone 7, they never stop growing. I usually prune them at the end of September. It's been bitter cold lately and the new shoots didn't care one bit. Still green as a gourd. I have three Oso Easy roses by Proven Winners and so far, they are evergreen too. I wasn't expecting that. I am going to transplant them to a container soon. They are growing like weeds and taking over the beds. I enjoyed this post on pruning. I suppose if I had a hybrid or some other fancy rose it would matter what I trim them with. But those hardy cultivars I have can be cut with a case knife and keep going. Anna/Flowergardengirl’s last blog post..How Would You Landscape A Cultural Center?

By: Genevieve

Genevieve — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 05:44:20 +0000

I think they basically need that forest floor environment with a lot of mulch and composty business (perhaps a gentle groundcover around to catch the dew), a few years to get established (never try to move them once they’re in, they are touchy!), speckled bright shade, and not much water beyond the dew in the summer (so no automatic irrigation). I hope that helps! I’ve grown them with great success and ease in environments close to their natural home (they can be quite tough!), but had little success with them in normal home garden situations where they get a couple of hours of direct sun and have to deal with normal garden soil and situations.

They are absolutely lovely. I’m planning on having a foresty spot in my garden for such things, with a rotting log perhaps and a small pond and lots of cute woodland perennials. Someday… Right now I have a garden with chickens, so charming woodland perennials are kind of out.

By: Genevieve

Genevieve — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 05:33:45 +0000

Thank you so much for your kind words and awesome advice, Ann! I’ve been experimenting with using a super heavy pile of chips on dormant tender perennials to overwinter them. Your rose advice is giving me more confidence that it will work!

By: Genevieve

Genevieve — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 05:32:25 +0000

You are so right. I have a client with a ginormous pair of anvil loppers and they are ACE on deadwood. I guess I don’t get to trash anvil pruners across the board!

Thanks for your cold climate take on things! It’s awesome to feel my gardening life wouldn’t end if I moved away from the coast.

By: Renate

Renate — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 02:52:58 +0000

Great post, though I don't have roses.. But I'm so enchanted by the Trillium in the top right corner of the blog. Any advice on how to grow those? I've have very mixed success... Renate’s last blog post..And more birds...

By: Ann

Ann — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 13:53:23 +0000

Another great posting here Genevieve. Being a northern gardener I leave the few roses I have in my gardens for pruning in early spring. I mound the soil at the base to help with winter protection too and pull it away in spring. This seems to work. Thanks for great pruning info. You make those of us who are uncertain of pruning methods empowered to give it a go. Ann’s last blog post..Cyrtanthus mackenii (Ifafa Lily)

By: Monica

Monica — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 13:33:48 +0000

In Michigan, winters are cold. So I should add people who trim back roses in fall, instead of spring, tend to leave them at 18 inches or so; this is because rose canes get frost damage from the tip down to the rootball, so the more you leave over winter, the higher the chances that you can cut off damage in spring. Some people also mulch their roses with leaves over winter. (As I've said, I don't grow them!) I also found out, through a master gardener association presentation Tuesday night, the answer to my own question of "what are anvil pruners supposed to be good for?" Dead wood! But the bypass pruners also work for deadwood, so why have anvils at all? (Of course, I'm not one to like a bunch of accessories, but I know I'm int he minority there!) Monica’s last blog post..Hope in the Unknown

By: Genevieve

Genevieve — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 01:25:51 +0000

That’s what I do, too, Monica. Much higher and they get leggy and spindly; much lower and they seem to run out of juice.

I bet your roses are fine, Lindsay! Almost any rose can handle being hacked at once, even at the wrong time of the year. We often have to whack roses and move them in the heat of the summer when doing new landscape installations, and they often even bloom later that year.

By: Lindsay

Lindsay — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 22:30:06 +0000

I'll have to see if the roses I "pruned" a couple months ago, survive, heh. They were growing up onto the deck and everything when I first moved in, so I hacked them back so they wouldn't be in the way. I definitely should have watched some YouTube videos first though. Ah well. If they die, I'll plant something I can eat in the spot (though I have heard rose hips can be tasty). Lindsay’s last blog post..How I Made $220.64 from One Short Blog Post