Northeast Gardeners Time to Prune Your Roses!!

Today is one of the first decent days to do anything outdoors without freezing one's tuckas off!! My roses got pruned today of severe, severe winter damage-- blackened or brown dead canes (stems) and any crossing or broken canes. Very woody canes near the bottom of the roses can also be pruned at this time since the roses haven't leafed out yet and you can see into the interior and pick and choose what canes are overcrowding the middles.

I think I lost my 'Scentimental' floribunda-- the entire plant is brown in color and I do not see any green canes or any enlarging reddish buds. Some of my hybrid teas like 'Grande Amore' got pruned to about 18" in height due to the winter damage. My 'Souvenir de Malmaison' a whitish pink Bourbon rose which is normally small (about 3') got pruned back almost to the ground due to the winter damage.

It was a long cold winter so I am not surprised, just upset that some of my roses had to be severely pruned back.

Any small V shaped canes can be pruned back to a single cane or if that cane is less than the diameter of a pencil, that can be pruned back. The weight of some roses cannot be held on those tiny stems so do not be shy about pruning.

All 'Knock Out' roses can be safely pruned back to about 18" if desired and they will bounce back to their normal 4' by the time summer ends.

Hold off on feeding your roses their first monthly feeding of rose food until they have completely leafed out. Epsom salts can be applied at the base of your roses at that time too. Scratch it into the soil or wait till there is rain in the forecast and then the rain will wash it in.