These tips and tricks are current for zone 5 and need to be adjusted one week earlier for each 100 miles south of the southern tip of Lake Michigan that you live, and one week later for each 100 miles north.
Pruning Old Garden Roses
Old Garden Roses, (OGR), require a different method of pruning than the modern roses such as Hybrid Teas and Floribundas.
The modern roses bloom on new wood, that is new growth that has grown off of your pruned back rose bush. Most OGR bloom off of canes from the previous year. If you prune back an OGR too far you will remove all of the flowering canes and then you'll have no flowers.
Many rose folks think that they should just automatically prune back all roses every fall. Not true! Leave as much of the growth on the bushes through the winter as is practical. All major pruning should be done in the spring for the modern roses and "After" bloom for OGR.
You can cut off any obvious dead tips or canes but don't try to shape the bush or thin it until after it's bloomed out. After it blooms, cut back any unwanted growth. Remove 1/3 of the oldest canes, all the way down to the base. This will generate new growth which produces more flowers than older growth.
Newer growth will be green while the older growth will usually be larger, darker, and take on the appearance of tree bark. If this is done every year, you'll always have a young vigorous bush which will flower profusely every year.
Repeat blooming OGR should be treated basically the same way. Do all major pruning after the first bloom. Shrub roses and OGR which bloom the first year bloom best after they get established and have been in their permanent home for at least a year.
OGR, by not having to be cut back every year, get very large and make excellent large specimen shrubs. Many OGR are very winter hardy and don't require much winter protection.
Remember, folks in the Southern States don't experience the dieback we cold birds do. The OGR in the South will grow larger and even some once blooming varieties will bloom again in the fall or late summer.
Next month-Japanese beetles
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