How to Prune Miniature Roses and Knock Out Roses for a Re-bloom
My roses bloomed beautifully the entire month of June, but the display came to a spectacular finale around the 4th of July.
I have two red knock out roses, two pink miniature rose bushes and one climbing White Dawn in my west-facing front garden bed.Knock out roses don’t need to be deadheaded since they are self-cleaning. But, if you have the time, it doesn’t hurt. I clipped out all my fading roses down to 5 leaflets. And did the same for the pink miniature roses.
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| My roses on June 24th |
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The view from my front window. A mix of catmint, roses and drying allium heads. |
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| This is what greets me as I climb the steps to my front door. |
From afar my front garden of roses still showed some color, but the petals on most of the roses were browning and the flowers looked tired. This signaled that it was time for me to pull out my leather gloves and pruners and deadhead my roses. This would ensure that my roses would put out new buds and that color would return to my garden in about 3 weeks.
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| Fading roses... |
How to Prune Miniature Roses
Pruning roses does not need to be a daunting task. It’s actually quite relaxing once you know what to focus on. You just need to follow a few easy steps.
Don a pair of leather gloves to protect you from the thorns. I also like to wear a long sleeved shirt to protect me from scratches and the bees that are constantly buzzing around.
Clean your hand pruners with alcohol before starting to avoid the spread of fungus or disease.
Examine your rose stem. Usually just below the roses are a set of 3 leaflets. Go down the stem until you find a set of 5 leaflets. If you go down further, you may find a set of 7 leaflets.
Locate a leaflet of 5. Trim the stem about ¼ inch above an outward facing 5-leaflet set. The cut should be made at a 45 degree angle to the leaflet. New growth will start from here. When trimming the stem, make sure to leave at least two 5-leaflet sets on the stem.
Clean up around the roses.
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| The neighborhood cat inspecting my handiwork |
My roses should put out new growth in a week and buds by the end of the month.
Other posts that may interest you:
How to deadhead Climbing White Dawn and New Dawn Roses
or
See what happened to my garden in August
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