When pruning roses one sometimes needs to be a sort of detective, a rose detective if you will. Pruning is all about making the plant a manageable size, open for air circulation and getting rid of diseases. This little line-nub-thing, called a bud eye is where a leaf was. Sometimes it's difficult to see and you need to search for it. This is what you cut above because this is from where the new growth comes. You cut above a bud eye facing away from the center of the plant so that you have a clear center of the bush. A clear center equals good air circulation and deters diseases. You could just whack wherever and the plant would recover but would be happier if you cut above a bud eye :-)
I pruned 297 roses this week for a total of 536 so far.
Enjoy your rose detective work!
How do you keep your roses alive with the water restrictions? I am grieving as I starting to prune my roses, because quite a few have died, and others have hardly grown at all, due to the water restrictions we have. And I need to cut back even more because I'm over my water "budget". I used to have more than 80 roses, maybe even close to 100, and I'm afraid to count how few I have left.
ReplyDeleteI lost a few roses last summer as they just cooked. I hand water my whole yard(plant by plant only) and have found that it takes less water than my neighbor's yards who have lawns. We haven't had that much in restrictions yet. Good luck.
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