Why do you prune in July? To make sure you have great blooms on your rose bush in October. Horticulturists will tell you rose bushes are pruned to develop or maintain their optimum appearance and to encourage strong healthy growth and the maximum number of flowers.
Pruning is best done in the third week of July in warm gardens such as those in the sheltered heat island of Joburg and Sandton. Wait until the first week of August if you live in a chilly frost zone such as Randfontein or Boksburg.
Blunt tools can bruise and tear stems allowing infection to enter, so invest in good quality pruning equipment and ensure they are sharpened ahead of pruning. Use secateurs for small cuts, pruning saws on larger branches and long-handled loppers for out-of-reach or awkward spots. Wear leather or heavy-duty gardening gloves and closed shoes as a precaution against scratches, thorns and possible infection, and destroy all prunings if wood or leaves were diseased.
How you prune is not nearly as important as just doing it. If your roses flowered poorly last summer, or grow in shade, it is better to prune lightly. Some rose growers choose to cut back all branches to knee height, while others prefer pruning old and diseased wood and inward-growing branches to allow light and air to reach the bush.
Under this regime, branches that cross or rub against each other should also be removed, as should any stems thinner than a pencil.
Roses in borders
Give roses in borders a light pruning to allow sunlight to reach sprouting eyes. Where roses are planted close together in a bed on their own, they can be pruned more severely. Standard roses are cut back to between 30 and 60cm from the crown’s centre. Iceberg roses need little cutting back, as they sprout on old wood. Use gardening shears to trim miniature roses to 30cm, and remove any dead stems.
Shrub roses can be cut back to half their present height, and bush roses by about a third to just above a sprouting eye – a reddish-purple swelling on the stem. Most climbing roses bloom on wood that is two years or older so only unproductive older wood or spindly growth need be removed. Fan stems horizontally to encourage flowering from every eye.
Species and rambling roses that bloom in summer should only be cut back after they have flowered.
Pruning aftercare
Some gardeners paint cuts with a commercial sealer to reduce the risk of dieback and borer, but if cuts have been made cleanly, a healthy and correctly fertilised plant need not be sealed. If roses are sprayed during their growing season, spraying after pruning is not necessary unless there is scale. If scale is present, spray with double-strength Ludwig’s Insect Spray.
Roses will not grow well in compacted soil. If the fork does not easily penetrate the soil around the rose, loosen the soil and add generous amounts of organic material, such as compost, milled bark or peanut shells, together with 30g of Vigorosa. Once the soil has warmed, spread a 10cm layer of mulch around each rose, keeping away from the stem.
Water each rose thoroughly after pruning, and then once a week until the roses start sprouting. Increase watering to twice a week and then more frequently as the weather warms up and you will have a splendid show of roses.
Choose a rose
July is a great month to plant roses. The disease-resistant roses bred nowadays bear no resemblance to the roses of yesteryear. Now is the time to dump poor-performing roses and replace them with great new roses.
Look out for the 2010 All America Rose Selection, the Easy Does It rose (apricot peach) as well as the glorious Winter Sun (light yellow), Red Ayoba (antique red), Clocolan (apricot), Knysna (apricot pink) and the gloriously large Brümilda van Rensburg (delicate pink).
If you are looking for glamour, try Heidi Klum (violet pink), the cerise disease-resistant Knock Out rose (deep red), Alabaster (washed white pink), Hot Cocoa (a brownish-orange floribunda), Jolly Good (fragrant salmon-pink) or the Ruby Pearl (pink and white). - Saturday Star
For more information, go to www.lifeisagarden.co.za or www.rosafrica2012.co.za