Pruning Roses

(Image 1)

Gary:  Well it's time to take care of those rose bushes even though it might be a little chilly today or tomorrow, you know Louisiana weather goes back and forth.  What do you do and why do you have to prune?

JOHN: It's to rejuvenate the plant so it comes up with new canes.  If you don't you're gonna have a lot of old cane it's gonna have less new growth on it. A lot of these roses they might be big right now they might be four feet tall, you can bring them down to eighteen inches.  And they won't have anything on them, no leaves or anything really. But you wouldn't believe the beautiful plant it'll turn into.  If not, you're not gonna end up with half the plant you'd have otherwise, it won't flower as much.

This plant right here is an old one that I have one prune in it and I just want to show you where you wanna do it. You see the bud union right here, well you want to cut it a little before because this part could dry up a little bit. This is where your new growth is gonna come out, and this would be about eighteen inches.  So like with this one right here, you see that little bud on it.  Cut it like that with sharper pruners.  Cut it at an angle and this is where your new growth is gonna come out.  You want to leave about four to five large canes like this size here or this one, you want to leave that.

You want to start your fertilizing much later.  When they start making their buds and wanting to flower, then you start fertilizing.  You want to use a cup per bush per month, every month while they're flowering. When they quit you can quit. We also have all the fungicides at the store that you'll need to be spraying.  Once they put their leaves on, protect them from getting black spot, powdery mildew.  Roses get everything so you need to constantly spray them.

Lawn and Garden, is brought to you by Chastant Brothers, incorporated on Pinhook Road in Lafayette.

blog comments powered by Disqus