Regularly Trimming A Rose During The Season

Paul Zimmerman, contributor

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Closeup of the yellow rose.

Paul Zimmerman Roses

The tall yellow roses are to the right at the front of the bed by one of the entrances to Biltmore's walled rose garden.

Paul Zimmerman Roses

Closeup of the yellow rose.

Photo: Paul Zimmerman Roses

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I was up at the Biltmore Estate for the first round of judging of their International Rose Trials yesterday. There was one lovely yellow rose that was sending up some particularly tall canes - taller than a rose in that spot should be growing. What was very interesting was that it was blooming down low and at the top of those tall canes. At the time they were planted they were newly released roses so not much was known about them.

The question came up what to do about it.

Now if this was any other plant that would be an odd question. Odd, only because the answer would be obvious; cut it back.

Yet, since these are roses the idea of cutting them back in midseason causes experienced gardeners to pause and say to themselves, "can I do that?”

I suspect this is due to the cutting back of roses discussed only in the context of "pruning season".  Pruning season for most of the country is late winter or early spring when the forsythia bloom. That has always been the accepted time to do the hard cutting back of your roses - and it still is for the major work. 

With garden roses we are learning it is okay to cut them back during the growing season to keep them to a manageable and desired size. 

Before we go on I do need to interject that ideally you want to make sure you select a rose with the right mature height for that particular spot and use in the garden. Just like selecting any plant, shrub or tree; it's important to consider the growth habit and size before you buy. 

Yet, even the most knowledgeable of gardeners sometimes find themselves faced with a plant that exceeds size expectations. When this happens they simply realize that plant is going to need regular trimming to keep it in check. 

That is exactly how I want you to think of garden roses. It you have an exuberant rose there is nothing wrong with trimming it during the season to keep it under control. The best time to do this is right after each bloom flush. What is a bloom flush? A bloom flush is defined as each time the rose cycles through a major flowering. All roses have times they are covered in flowers and times when they have less. When they are covered in flowers they are at the peak of their bloom flush, and when they are not they are between bloom flushes. It's the time between flushes you will do your cut back. Why? Because you don't want to do it while the rose is in peak bloom and cut off all those glorious flowers!

I'm not a big believer in a radical cut back during the season. Instead try to cut back only individual canes that are growing taller than you would like. In the case of the yellow rose at Biltmore, the method would be to simply cut the tall canes back to the height of the bulk of the bush right after they bloom. If the entire plant is out of control bring it back by no more than a third to a half. If the plant simply doesn’t want to stay contained then come winter simply move it to a spot where it can grow to its natural size.

So if your roses gets out bounds during the growing season do what your Gardener’s Instincts are telling you do. Trim it!

Happy Roseing

Paul

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Comments (1)

bee1nine writes: Paul, Thanks for this reassuring advice!! Posted: 7:23 am on May 16th

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