How and When to Prune Roses

Gord Nickel: Well, they really do have a beautiful display of roses here at Butchart Garden, so we decoded to come see Brian Gord Nickelson to find out a few of their trade secrets. Hi, Brian. Brian: Hi. Gord Nickel: So, what do you guys, do with your roses to make them look so great here? Brian: Well, first of all, we prune them in the spring time, after the last hard frost. First of all, make sure you have a sharp pairs of sucketeers because that is very important to have clean cuts. The next thing you do, you look at the plant and you look for any dead wood or diseased wood. And, in this plant here, if you look at it, you can see this guy here, blocked down below, you got knobs like that, you do not want either. Gord Nickel: Okay, so you want to take those off. What about cross wood and the actual structure of the plant? Brian: Cross wood, you want out too. And, you want your structure to look like a vas. So you want to look that, so sun can access it, and also it gets breezes and winds and stuffs like that. Gord Nickel: Okay, to keep the fungus down. Brian: Yes. Gord Nickel: Excellent. Well, can you show us what you would do with something like this? Brian: Okay, something like this here, first of all, you take out a small spindle stuff like that. I mean, you want to make sure you take it right back to the main wood. Okay, you do not want to leave knobs, because knobs leave room for disease. Gord Nickel: Right. Brian: So, we took off those knobs, these guys here. Gord Nickel: You might need lappers for those big ones. Brian: Yes, and we have lappers here just in case we need them, and the saw. So, you can see, we got four big healthy canes here, left on the plants. So, have something like that, you come through and take this out. Gord Nickel, the idea is to have four to six healthy canes. Gord Nickel: Okay. All right. Now, what type of roses are these. Brian: These are Hybrid Teas. Gord Nickel: Now, do you prune on the same as you would, by Floribundas and Grandifloras? Brian: Well, pruning is a little lower than the Granadifloras, that is Floribundas get prune the same. Gord Nickel; So, what you do normally take this down to, compared to Grandiflora? Brian: The Hybrid Teas, we take down to about four to six inches. Gord Nickel; Okay, so you are going to bring this down roughly about there. Brian: Yes. Gord Nickel: Okay, and then the Grandifloras, how would you prune those? Brian: The Grandifloras, we take down to about waist section. Same thing, you need more growth on their, more branches and growth on those ones, because we like to keep those higher. Gord Nickel: Well, you finished this one off and we will see what it looks like. Brian: All right.