How To Prune Your Roses in the Spring

February is the time to prune your roses in the Sacramento Valley.  The first step for me in pruning my roses is to pull off every leaf on the plant.  Removing the leaves and throwing them away or putting them in the compost will help prevent diseases throughout the growing season.  Some say to prune the branches first which reduces the number of leaves you have to pull off.  This is true but, I like to get a good look at the plant structure before I prune.  The best way to do this is by removing the leaves before you prune.  Removing the leaves is easy to do, just grab the set of leaves and pull downward towards the base of the plant.  On the larger branches the leaves will pull right off, but on the thinner branches you will want to support the tips to protect them from breaking.  I have found that leaving even one leaf on the plant dwarfs the plant and it is slower to recover in the spring.

After removing the leaves from plant you can get a good look at the structure.  First remove any small intersecting branches.  Any branches that are a 1/4 inch or smaller just remove to the base.  Then open up the inside of the plant by removing branches.  This creates air flow through the center of the plant, which reduces disease in the spring and fall.  The air flow drys out moisture cutting down on powdery mildew.  Now that you have pruned down to three to five main branches, you will want to reduce the overall height of the plant to keep the plant more compact.  This will give you more flowers in a smaller space.  Roses can take heavier pruning than other plants.  You can cut roses down to as short as 12 inches, but I don't like to remove more than half the plant.  You can take more of the plant off, but it will take longer for the plant to recover.  If you live at higher altitudes delay pruning until the threat of snow and freezing has passed.  This may mean a few weeks to a couple of months.  You can also do this through out the spring and summer if your plant gets stressed by lack of water or even large attack of bugs.

Now that your rose is pruned it is a good time to fertilize.  I like a good slow release organic rose fertilizer, you can also use a time release synthetic fertilizer.  It is important that the fertilizer is released slowly to the plant, because it is healthier for the plant.  I also like to add epsom salt, this will add magnesium to your plant which will help with health of your rose bush.  Add about a 1/4 cup epsom salts per rose.  It will help to make for greener shinier leaves.