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Pruning time You can’t smell the roses if they’re way over your head BY DEBBIE ARRINGTON
PHOTO BY DEBBIE ARRINGTON
And, as we’ve seen recently, there’s no predicting when wet weather will hit. Get out the pruners while the sun shines. “The best time to prune is when the last frost has passed, the buds are swelling and the extended forecast is warming,” said T.J. David, founder and curator of the World Peace Rose Garden at Capitol Park. Using the last frost as a milestone, that would be sometime in late February, but that’s long after most roses are pruned in Sacramento. It’s better to prune here while the bushes are still sleeping in the dead of It’s time to tell your roses: Knock it off! winter. November’s mostly dry and relatively warm “I usually recommend it’s a great time to weather coaxed bushes to just keep flowering. prune in the Sacramento region from approxiAlthough I appreciate the bonus December mately Dec. 15 to Jan. 31 or, if really necessary, blooms, that makes it hard to winter prune. up to the first week in February,” David said. Roses need pruning to revitalize the How do you get a rose bush to slow bush and reset their biological clock. down and take a winter break? Allow Otherwise, canes sprout atop canes, rose hips—the rose fruit—to ripen. creating tangled messes 10 feet Instead of clipping off spent tall (or more) with blooms way Roses need blooms, let the hips that swell out of reach. at the base of each flower turn pruning to You can’t smell the roses if deep red-orange. That cues the revitalize the bush they’re way over your head. plant that its work is done for I know from experience. and reset their this year. As a gardener, roses are my After the hips mature, the biological clock. specialty; I’m a “master rosarbush will drop its leaves and stop ian,” a designation awarded by pushing out fresh growth. That the American Rose Society. I grow makes winter pruning much easier. about 140 bushes in my own garden, all “You’ve got to remember to strip off of which need pruning. They give me plenty of any remaining leaves,” David explained. practice. Remaining foliage, even if it looks green and Local public rose gardens have already healthy, may be harboring fungal disease such started clipping away, trying to get a jump on as rust, blackspot or powdery mildew that can this annual chore. infect fresh leaves in spring. “Our pruning actually starts in November Learn more about pruning at several upcomby pruning out dead wood from the roses,” said ing events. The biggest is McKinley Park’s Lyn Pitts, who oversees the Memorial Rose Prune-a-thon, 9 a.m.-1 p.m. on Jan. 4. That’s Garden at McKinley Park. “When you have when volunteers tackle the remaining 600 over 1,200 roses to prune, it really helps to get bushes. that old dead wood out of the way! This time, there may be more; renovations at “Then in December, I normally have lots McKinley Park have slowed pruning progress. of hands-on pruning clinics for rose bushes, Said Pitts, “January will be a very busy month, climbing roses and tree roses as well as many catching up the pruning!” □ opportunities for volunteers to come and prune the western half of the McKinley Rose Garden,” Debbie Arrington, an award-winning garden writer and lifelong Pitts said. “We try to prune the western half— gardener, is co-creator of the Sacramento Digs Gardening blog approximately 600 roses—before Dec. 25.” and website.
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When allowed to ripen, rose hips (the plant’s fruit) cue the bush to stop blooming and rest.
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