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How to Prune Desert Roses
How to Prune Desert Roses. Surprisingly, the desert southwest is a wonderful place to grow roses. Some varieties bloom year round, and they grow vigorously in the spring and early summer months, with adequate food and water. Some varieties are dormant in the chilly winter months, and that's a good time to start pruning them for lush growth and lots...
Surprisingly, the desert southwest is a wonderful place to grow roses. Some varieties bloom year round, and they grow vigorously in the spring and early summer months, with adequate food and water. Some varieties are dormant in the chilly winter months, and that's a good time to start pruning them for lush growth and lots of blooms when the weather starts to warm.
Things You'll Need
Pruners
Pruning salve
Leather gloves
Garbage can
Pruning Roses in the Desert
Put on your leather gloves and put the garbage can next to where you are working. Not handling the pruned branches more than once lessens the possibilities of getting stuck by the thorns.
Remove the obviously dead stems and branches, also known as canes.
Remove the canes that cut through the center of the rose bush. Roses like good air circulation and like to have sunshine penetrating throughout the bush. Make sure that you put pruning salve on the living branches that you cut.
Remove the suckers--those are the new shoots at the bottom of the plant. If left on the bush, they will take the energy from the esablished parts of the rosebush.
Cut off obviously old growth. As the soil and the sun warm in the early spring, the rose will put out new growth, and the flowers it generates will be stunning, compared to flowers coming from old growth.
Tips & Warnings
Always cut just above the bud at a 45-degree angle. The bud is that little bump on canes that looks like a new leaf bud, just as in trees.
You should not "dead head" roses in the summer. Dead heading is removing the spent flowers. Any shade from the intensely hot sun in the summer will help keep the leaves from getting burned. Never prune a rosebush in the desert southwest during the heat of the summer. Do not prune more than one-third to one-half of the plant.
