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The Reality Of Rose Pruning

Photos by MONICA BRANDIES

The misconception that knockout roses are too fragile to make bouquets was proven wrong when gardening columnist Monica Brandies put together this arrangement, and it lasted three days.

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By MONICA BRANDIES

The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 4, 2009

Last week I offered some tips on pruning roses. After taking on the bushes in my landscape, I have a few more thoughts to offer that might help you tackle your own.

Believe me, rose pruning will be easier for you than it was for me. You don't have to keep a camera on hand or try to prune a rosebush until it is perfect - or at least a good example of how it should be done.

Hopefully, your roses won't have been neglected as long as mine were. And you won't have so many plants crowding around them.

I added more equipment to my list: a hoe and a shovel to remove other plants from the space that should have been reserved for the roses all along.

Some of my ground covers, including my Joseph's coat, had crept to the base of the rosebush and started climbing the canes. I dug those out. And the next week, the rest of them froze.

The leaves of my snowbush looked great with the Knockout roses, but the seedlings sprang up too close. One with a trunk a full 11/2 inches thick at the base was growing right out of the crown of my rosebush. I pulled up what I could and cut off the rest.

Some of the thorns on the rose branches the next bush over kept catching on my clothes and skin. I pruned them back to give them their own space.

The first part of pruning roses is easy - taking out the dead, broken or diseased wood. Next, I removed the crossing, crowding and weak wood. If this is all you do, you still will improve the plant and its production.

It is difficult to avoid dropping rose prunings to the ground, where they could drop disease spores and come back to haunt me. I considered spreading newspaper or a sheet under the bush so I could drop the prunings and pick them up later, but once I got gloves and a huge plastic pot to put them in, I did pretty well keeping them off the ground.

The Belinda's Dream rosebush had healthy-looking growth coming up from the base. I checked to see that it was not from the rootstock, and it wasn't, so I saved the shoots.

I didn't want to take off all the foliage, but most was on the top third of the canes, so it is gone. I managed to save a little foliage on the Knockout rose. I wanted to end up with a vase shape of healthy limbs coming from the crown. But the Belinda had grown into a straight line. I hope some new canes will shoot up in other directions to round it out more next year.

The Knockout roses were still blooming, so I cut the blossoms and made a bouquet. I had never tried these fragile-looking flowers in a bouquet, but they surprised me and lasted nicely for three days before the first petals fell.

In spite of wearing gloves, I got two splinters in my fingers and tore the first small hole in my favorite garden britches.

I have a few more rosebushes to prune. For the Louis Philippe that wants to grow over the driveway, I'll start by pruning the palm overhead. The Mutabilis in the back garden will benefit from any reduction in size, because the plant fills a circle of about 10 feet and keeps closing in on the paths.

Today's Pick

The first time I saw Snowbush Breynia disticha, I couldn't believe a plant could live with so little green and so much white in its leaves. Some new leaves were completely white. I expected it to die, so it did.

When I saw the same bush thriving in other gardens, I revised my outlook, but it was difficult to get cuttings to root or transplant seedlings. At last, I had a thriving stand of this evergreen shrub that can grow to 6 feet with graceful arching branches and small, oval-shaped variegated leaves that vary from green and pink, dusted with white at the bottom, to entirely white.

The new growth on mine was a dark pink, and the foliage added constant color and texture to the garden. The freeze the night of Jan. 21 took all the foliage, so I'll have to see if it comes back. At worst, I hope to have some small seedlings come up again.

I have never seen Snowbush bloom, though they must have to put out so many seedlings. The flowers are supposed to be white and bloom in summer. The plant is said to grow in zones 10 B - 11, I but I had mine so long I was considering them invasive - until that one cold night.

Now's The Time To ...

•Try to be strong in the face of what seems to me the worst freeze we've had since the Christmas of 1989. Many plants were damaged that had never or seldom been damaged before, and it will take time to see what comes back. A column about pruning away frost damage will follow.

•There is no hurry to prune after such a frost because that damaged foliage may provide protection from later freezes if they come, and they could. Also, if you prune before new growth shows, you may prune off the good stems and save the bad ones. The only exception to this rule is plumeria, or frangipani. Check the tips of the branches, and if they are soft, prune them down to solid growth. Otherwise, the soft rot in the ends can spread down the succulent branch and grow worse.

•Do not fertilize. It is best that the new growth come at a moderate, not accelerated, rate.

Upcoming Events

The Tampa African Violet Society will meet at 7 p.m. Thursday at the Ragan Community Center, 1200 East Lake Ave., Tampa. There will be a demonstration on how to construct a dish garden. Visitors are welcome. There will be a plant drawing. Admission and parking are free. Contact Mary Lou Harden, president, at (813) 689-8700, or Mina Menish, publicity chairwoman, at (813) 681-1910.

Monica Brandies can be reached at monicabrandies@yahoo.com.

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