Simplros
or the way I grow our really large roses after they become to large for a three gallon pot. Last edited Tuesday, June 23, 2015
I'll be going into more detail at a later date. For now I'll say that we plant roses using my volcano method surrounded by Versailles boxes. Come on by and check them out. Otherwise check here, I'll have links to pictures soon.
For varieties check my rosebuy page. Better information is provided by email. So email me, give me your zone information, your coldest temperatures in winter (over the last 20 years), your annual rainfall and I'll see if I can help.
Below this point there is lots that is repeated from my article on roses.
When to prune old roses, modern roses, non-recurrent roses and more.
The traditional time to prune repeat flowering roses is from mid winter to early spring but remember that;
in zone 5 or less prune late,
in zone 6 or warmer one can prune earlier except in years when winters are severe.
I dont prune modern and repeat blooming roses until after growth buds at mid stem begin to swell. Generally the idea is to prune after the risk of a serious frost is past but before your plants have put on a lot of growth that just has to be cut off.
Dead heading (removing faded flowers) on repeat blooming varieties will encourage rebloom. Not dead heading will reduce the amount of new growth and therefore the number of new buds.
On a hybrid tea, dead heading will involve cutting back to the first set of 5 leaflets that point away from the center.
The farther back that stems are cut;
1) the larger flowers will get
2) the longer it will take for them to rebloom.
A severe pruning down to 5 or 6 inches of the ground in spring, as long as the bud union (in a grafted rose) is not dead, will produce new growth.
Open the center, removing all but a few of the strongest canes. These remaining canes should then be cut back to an outward facing bud.
An unpruned hybrid tea will produce growth that is too week to produce large flowers. Sooner or later it will get very large with flowers only near the top. Then it will eventually die due to overcrowded canes and a buildup of dead wood at the crown (or graft) that invite disease or insects ("Roses of America", Scanniello, 86 & 93).
To prune Hybrid Perpetuals remove a proportion of the older wood and cut back all the canes by half during late winter while still dormant. Repeat after the first flowering.
Bourbons are pruned while still dormant at the beginning of the growing season after its several years old. All shoots are shortened by 1/3. As plants age remove older wood. After flowers fade laterals are cut back by 1/3.
Chinas dont nead pruning as such to promote rebloom and so we only pinch off faded flowers and remove dead wood. Severe pruning should only be attempted when the plant is dormant.
Pinch off flowers on Damask roses after they have faded. Hard pruning may be done immediately after all flowering has stopped, probably late June in the Albany area, but isn't necessary except to remove dead wood (remember that on a spring blooming old rose, next years flower buds are formed between the longest day of the year (locally June 20) and frost, prune too late and no flowers next spring).
Galicas can be pruned like a damask except for the removal (late June to early July locally) of one or two (no more than 20% of the upright canes) of the older canes each year which can promote the growth of new canes.
Albas are very upright and dont sucker as some other old garden roses do. Some of the older growth may be removed on mature specimens (in late June to early July locally) its best to be conservative with this removal as the best flowers apear on second year growth. Plants on their own roots may benefit from occasional hard pruning (locally in late June or early July) but flowers may be lost the following year.
Jean asked me August 14, 2006 about pruning in late summer and winter protection.
I answered;
When cutting back you must think about the fact that roses store food in their canes. Less cane on the plant the less food stored. Sometimes roses die back in winter. If the canes are 30 inches tall and it dies back 10 inches you''ll be removing some dead wood next spring. If the canes are only 10 inches tall or less you'll be replacing the rose. Some roses (notably hybrid tea's but they've been hybridized with other types so much characteristics can show up elsewhere), when pruned in fall or early winter have been known to die (Steven Scaniello has observed this). Leaving roses unpruned and tying to some sort of support so that they dont get whipped around by winter winds (besides you can leave the heps on for decoration in winter). As far as mounding the plant; as long as the crown is below soil so that a thicket of stems rise from the soil not just one, rodent damage should be decreased. If you are in zone 5 and are talking about a zone 5 rose, mounding with a heap of damp sand in the absence of snow might be a good idea (I keep several bags of sand in my basement for this purpose). Later in the winter, if there's no snow and extremely cold temperatures with desicating winds are forecast. You can dump a heap of damp sand on top. Later in the spring, when the sand thaws, I wash it away with a hose.,
Andy