It’s David Epstein of GrowingWisdom.com fame again,this time giving a short (2 min 25 sec) springtime brief on how to prune a rose bush. Here is a useful quick lesson in something that is reputed to be difficult but is really quite easy. Tools are important: David uses gloves (rose bushes can be incredibly thorny) and using clean prune shears (you don’t want diseases spreading from one plant to another through your garden equipment).
David is very encouraging about the act of pruning. He says, “It’s really hard to mess up a rose bush!” Look for the buds on the vertical branches. Leave three or four buds on a branch and prune the stem at an angle about 1/4 inch above the last bud. (Those buds are going to form the lateral branches later on.) Then you prune the bush into a vase shape, making it nice and open for air flow. This discourages disease, says David.
Clever tip: David packs the cut branches in a pile pointing in the same direction so they can be lifted and disposed of easily once you are done. Oh, and after pruning he gives the rose bush a little fertilizer snack of 8:8:8 to promote spring growth.
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