Never Skip This Fall Rose Pruning Trick!, by Hacienda Homestead Stories on YouTube. 1 min 54 s.
- Video length
- 1 min 54 s
- Time to do it
- 30 minutes
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Steps
- 10
What you need
Steps
Wait for the worst summer heat to pass. Prune on a mild morning, ideally below about 30°C (85°F), so you are not cutting a bush that is already heat stressed.
Wipe the pruner blades with rubbing alcohol before you start and again between bushes. Clean cuts keep disease out of the open stems.
Put on thick gloves and long sleeves. Rose thorns scratch easily and the sleeves keep your arms clear of the canes.
Cut out dead, damaged and diseased stems first. Follow each one down to healthy green wood and make the cut just above a live bud.
Remove the leggy stems that shot up tall over summer with few leaves. Take them back to a strong side branch or right down to the base.
Trim no more than one third of the bush's overall height. This light cutback is what triggers the new growth flush and the next round of blooms.
Make each cut about 5mm (1/4 inch) above an outward facing bud, slanting away from it so water runs off the cut surface.
Open up the middle of the bush by removing any stems that cross inward or rub against each other. Good airflow cuts down on fungal problems.
Rake up the clippings and fallen leaves from around the base. Leaving them there gives pests and disease somewhere to sit over winter.
Water the bush deeply afterwards and give a light feed. Skip high nitrogen fertiliser within about six weeks of your first expected frost.
Tips and common mistakes
Never cut more than a third off in fall, since a hard prune can push tender growth that frost will kill.
Sharpen your pruners before you start, because crushed stems heal slowly and invite rot.
Leave the strongest three to five canes and build the bush around them.
If your area gets early frosts, prune at least six weeks before the usual first frost date.
Questions
Can I prune roses in autumn?
Yes, a light tidy up is fine and often useful in warm climates. Keep it to about a third of the height and save any hard renovation prune for late winter or early spring.
Will fall pruning stop the spring bloom?
Not if you keep it light. Heavy cutting in fall can remove the wood that carries next spring's flowers, so stay with thinning and a one third cutback.
Does this work on climbing roses?
The same one third rule applies, but climbers are usually pruned more in late winter. In fall, just tie in long canes and remove dead or crossing stems.
This guide was drafted from the video's details and general task knowledge. It has not been checked against the full video. Check the video and relevant product instructions before following a procedure. Report a correction.
