Rose Pruning For Maximizing Blooms

A question we get asked often is “How do I prolong blooming on my roses?”. We’re here to give you the answer in our simple guide to maximizing your rose blooms. A lot of people think you should only cut back your roses in the winter and spring, but in fact, pruning back spent flowers and rosehips can actually give your plant a chance to put more energy into new growth, hence producing new shoots and blooms! I told my mother about this trick at the beginning of spring and she said her roses have never grown so much in one season. So without further ado, let’s get into it.

Pruning

1. Find Your Spent Flower

You’ll want to start with everything that looks, for lack of better words, dead. If you are unsure if blooms are ready to be on the chopping block, take the stem and do a light shake test. If petals easily come off the flower, it’s time for it to go.

2. Find Where to Cut

Next, you’ll want to travel down the stem of the spent flower and find the next 5 leaf growth or new growth if it has any. Once you find those, you want to snip about a half inch or so above it. Keep in mind that the direction of the 5 leafed stem you are cutting above is the direction the new flower will grow!

3. Trim off Rosehips

When a spent flower isn’t trimmed, it eventually grows into a rosehip, taking energy from the plant. In order to promote new blooms, you want to cut the spent flowers before they turn to rosehips or trim the rosehips when you catch them so the plant can put more energy into new growth.

Additional Care

Especially in the hotter months, make sure your plant is getting enough water. Generally, in higher temperatures they will need to be watered daily but a good rule of thumb to follow is to check the top few inches of soil. If they are dry, it’s time to water. Watering is best done in the morning as it gives the plant an opportunity to soak up all its water to use throughout the day!

Nutrients and Fertilizers

Giving your roses a good feeding each season will encourage overall health and growth throughout the growing months. We recommend this Rose & Flower Food from E.B Stone that we carry in our Garden Center. You want to feed your roses once in spring (the beginning of the season) and again around mid-june. Follow directions on the back of the package for exact application rates.

Our Garden Center is always staffed with experts to help you with any questions you might have. We are here to provide all the necessary tools to help you succeed in your garden! You can still find a variety of roses available in our Garden Center. Be sure to watch out for upcoming sales and workshops posted on our website, Instagram, and Facebook.