Well, as I walk around the neighborhood viewing the frontyard gardens, I observe that almost all the gardeners have pruned their roses. One or two intransigent gardeners have not pruned their roses at this late date of 28th January, but that really doesn't matter. Most roses, except hybrid teas, will do well with little or no pruning. Of course most people in the suburbs adore hybrid teas--good and showy in the front yard. And, they feel so horticulturally correct.
I suppose there are only two reasons for pruning roses in late winter (such as it is here in Southern Calafia). The temperature in my garden dipped to only forty-seven degrees F this winter. It's warmer and drier here than it was forty years ago and the pinch is on. If we want to continue gardening, we will have to change our watering habits or move.
First, roses need pruning back (severely or minimally) to redirect the plant's energy or elan into new growth that will in turn produce a healthier rosebush and better blossoms. Trees and plants in the wild get trimmed regularly by wind, ice, some animals, and their own self limiting growth. A healthy, compact tea has a good reserve of energy, but if left unpruned, teas become a bit spindly, unkempt and weak. The yellowish,leaves hang on forever, looking dissolute and weary here in Califia, thus weaking the entire plant. The energy has not been redirected back into the plant base and the roots. So, pruning will create stronger force for the production of future blossoms. Shakespeare says in "Richard II" that Richard would have been a real king if he hadn't been so narsissistic and pseudo poetic and had taken a pruning hook to his garden, his realm. His realm was rank with sycophantes and he lived in the world of his own self centered ideals. So, unfortunaely he learned the hard way; he was violently deposed and lost what he thought was "his" realm.
Cut the roses back to about fourteen inches, or even lower if that feels good. Cut the cane at a slant just above a bud that points in the direction that you want the new stem or cane to grow. The slant allow moisture to drip off. Cut down old canes to the base of the bush. I usually remove two or three of these every year. The big thick canes get old and weak, and new shoots from the base need to form new ones.
It's that simple. Why "cane" I do not know--they don't look like canes to me except in standard rose buhes--the bushes that grow at the top of a three or four trunk-like cane. Must be some esoteric rosarian jargon word. And, I never use a sealenton the cuts, and neither do many of myexperience and worthy mentors. It is good also to to cut above directional buds so that they point outward from the center of the plant. This will create a rose bush that looks like an open "lovely" vase as the English rosers are want to say. This vase form looks good for some special reasons. More practically, the the rose bush is opened up letting in sun and air. Make the bush an orant form with outstretching arms to embrace the Cosmos. I think the English and the French might be the best growers of roses, both amatuer and professional. Some gardener says that the English roses are among the very best, and I agree. And do not forget that "Peace" ("Mme. Antoine Meilland") is a French rose. And just think of Miss Jane Marple musing in her cottage garden when you think of English rosarians.
Roses other than the ubiquitous flashy teas need little pruning. I cut out dead wood, spindly stems, and weak branches, and I use my feeling sense to help create a satisfactory looking rosebush form, as opposed to a shape. Feeling sense is the hardest thing for me communicate to some people. A "shape" reminds me of that Victorian thing or mold made with colored jello to be set on the table as a center piece to be "ooed" and "aahed" over before it gets too slimy and melts.
Second, roses need the pruning ritual because it cleans out dead branches, recreates the form and makes the rose beds look good in anticipation of the vegetative leaf buds yearning to push out the new year's growth. Roses also "need" (I suppose they expect it) the pruning ritual because people like to do it as a symbolic turning point for the new year. Actually, rose can be pruned at any time of the year, if necessary. The pruning can also become cause for a social get together. I get invited to at least one such ritual every January. Why, I do not know as I never attend, even though I love my roser friends.
Now, about water. We have received less than three inches of rain this last year and that is a serious matter! We will not be able to sustain roses if we don't get more rain. I don't know if this is temporary or long range. The water rates are going up, and as we all know, and the potter Michael Cardew says, "roses like artists are rich feeders." So, I shall write this in regard to what we would normally do if we had plenty of water.
After you prune the roses, you can spray them with a dormant spray, if you wish, to kill vermin and fungi. Then, apply a good organic fertilizer such as "Dr. Earth". I have found that the organic fertilizer with myccorhiza fungi (good fungi that help direct nutients to the rootlets) are the very best for healthy plant growth and blossoms. Organic fertilizers rejuvenate the soil and energize the plants into a mellow, steady growth, and they last longer than that hot-flash chemical stuff. No "hot shots" as with chemical fertilizers that are immediate and short lived! Use the organics now at half strength, and then apply it every six weeks thereafter, working the granules into the soil well and soaking them in. I really enjoy this earthy, dirt driven fun down on my knees. You will see a wonderful development of the leafage and blossoms. The tone of bushes simply becomes stronger and more vibrant. The leaves and petals have a depth that I can't quite describe.
Roses are the archetypal garden plant, the flower of spring and love, the scent of beautiful feelings. How could one have an evil thought when smelling that lovely rose scent? I hope I will always live in a clime where I can grow roses--as a boy growing up in North Miami, roses never lasted more tha a season, two at the most. The burned out because they had no rest.
Emily Dickinson wrote that every blossom is a resurrection, and I feel that she might have had the rose in mind.
