If it's time to prune your rose bushes, especially your tea roses, then it must be early spring.
The frosts will have finished their attacks and you will have cleaned up your rose beds from the winter winds, raked back the protective mulch covering from the roots and have your recently sharpened pruning clippers at the ready.
Generally, it is the same process for each bush, but if you have several bushes in a bed and they are fairly close together you should remember to stagger the eventual heights to allow light to get to all of the bushes, especially the ones at the back.
Prune a little shorter in the front to allow for taller growth at the back.
It is also a good idea to make a note of the height you pruned this spring so that you can adapt your pruning height for next spring.
Did the blooms appear at the height you wanted during the summer or were they much too high: eye height is a good marker.
Make the changes next spring to adjust for this, by recording the height you pruned this spring.
Make a mark on the fence for example or use a measuring stick in the ground as a guide.
Thus, each year you can adjust your pruning height to improve the look of the blooms on your bush for the following summer.
You should already have lowered the height of each bush in the fall to about your waist height, just to protect your bushes from the winter winds which tend to 'rock' the roots and loosen them.
Early spring time we prune for shape and bud promotion and there are just a few easy basic rules to follow, so assemble your sharpened pruners and loppers, protect your hands and eyes and have a container ready for the clippings.
A great tip to add here is that if you have a Forsythia bush in your garden, the yellow spring blooms are a perfect sign that your rose bushes are ready to prune.
I have used my Forsythia for this purpose for many successful years of pruning.
Five 'Easy-Peasy' pruning steps: 1...
Cut out all the dead stems without damaging the bulge just above the roots.
This is the graft and should be at about soil level.
If you live in a very cold weather environment this will be just below the soil level for protection.
2...
Cut out all stems that are less than a pencil thickness.
This is late season growth that not very useful, unless you have very few stems to work with.
If so, be sure that the ones you keep will become vertical stems and not horizontal ones.
3...
Cut out all stems that are growing horizontally, especially the ones growing across the center of the plant.
We are always looking for vertical growth not horizontal! 4...
If necessary, clean out the center of the plant, which should now be vase shaped formed by a few strong stems.
5...
Cut what is left down to about your knee height.
Cut on an angle to help with water distribution, and make sure the cuts are clean and made with a very sharp cut.
That's it, painless and very simple.
Remember: dead, thin, horizontal, vase and knee height.
All you need do now is to remove your clippings and clean up the surrounding bed.
This would also be a good time to mulch and fertilize.
Don't make pruning your rose bushes into a big deal because it isn't.
Rose bushes are very resilient and there isn't much you can do to destroy them, contrary to popular belief.
Doing nothing and not pruning is probably the worst thing you can do for a tea rose, because not only are you shaping the bush for the summer bloom production but you are giving it a sort of wake up call...
it's spring, get those buds growing! Here at Rose-Works.
com we have all the support, information and tips you will ever need, including a simple to follow month by month guide for a complete year.
Check it out, it really is 'Easy-Peasy'.