If you’re growing modern, ever-blooming roses like hybrid teas (including Knockouts and Belinda’s Dream), February is the time for renewal pruning.
With Valentine’s Day on the horizon, a lot of folks are thinking about cutting roses — not just florists, but anyone with modern roses in the garden.
If you’re growing old-fashioned garden or antique roses and climbing roses, you have a little more flexibility. Many old-fashioned roses and climbers bloom only once a year, flowering on last year’s wood. If this sounds like your rose, it can be pruned later in the year after flowering.
But for modern, ever-blooming roses like hybrid teas (including Knockouts and Belinda’s Dream), February is the time for renewal pruning. Since these cultivars bloom on new — not old — wood, last year’s growth needs to be removed to provide a fresh canvas.
- You’ll need sharp, curved-edge pruning shears, loppers, and gloves.
- It’s a good idea to perform the major pruning just as the spring buds begin to swell (typically mid-February).
- Start pruning away all dead, unproductive and crisscrossing canes and selectively cut the rest back to strong bases.
- Visualize reducing the entire bush to four-to-eight bare canes about 18-24 inches tall. The result: a strong base for this year’s new stems and flowers.
Rosarians always recommend cutting stems to an outward-facing dormant bud. This directs new growth outward, improving air circulation inside the bush to discourage fungal disease.
