roses in zone 7

[gypsyfarm123]

Hi all I planted roses (about 20) 5 years ago and never pruned them until last fall (Someone told me I was 'supposed' to) ,so I pruned them right to the ground and I'm not sure what month it was..Anyway, this year only seven or eight came back and they were dismal to say the least.So,I was wondering if someone in my zone could tell me what month,if at all,should I prune them? And was I wrong pruning right to the ground? Right now,there are a few new bud's about to open...but it's been getting mid 40's at night. Any help would be greatly appreciated as I am embarrassed to say that I don't know ANYTHING about them (except that I throw a few petals in my salad sometimes (and they are quite tasty thanks<craig

 

[digitS']

Do you know if yours are self-rooted or grafted plants, Craig?

When you are cutting flowers & stems from your roses, you are "pruning" so that is being done thru the growing season. There is risk of "die-back" from hard winter frost so fall pruning should take that into account. In other words, you may cut the stems thinking that they will grow from the last few buds remaining on that stem but then have another 6" killed by freezing thru the winter. The result may not be what you had hoped for.

Final hard pruning should wait until hard frosts are no longer a danger. Perhaps, that is in February in your part of the world but you should wait for a zone 7'er to respond on that.

I am curious about whether your plants are grafted and where the "to the ground" pruning was relative to the graft. If there was one.

Steve

 

[gypsyfarm123]

Thank you for the reply,Steve I bought them at a local mom and pop style hardware store that doesn't really carry plants except for roses in the spring time so my guess is that they are nothing special (I would assume if they were grafted,they would have cost more than the 25 to 30$ I paid for them,no?) but honestly,I don't even know how to tell when a 'rose' has been grafted or not. If my memory is correct,they were in a little box and I think they were bare root. (But I am not positive) Each year I would snip off the flower's as soon as they start to drop their petal's, mainly because I noticed that when the petal's start to drop and die if I didn't cut them it made them more of a target to the jap beetle's and ant's. Each year they would grow back fine and in the spring. All I would do was clip the dead part's off and never really had a problem..they were getting bigger each year and doing fine...Until this 'dingus' came over and told me "Ya kno,if you want MORE flower's next year,cut them right down to ground level". I didn't want to but he seemed to know what he was talking about (pointing out these little rusty and black spot's telling me that it was some kind of fungus or something..So I fell for his b/s and cut them down to the ground.Now I'm not sure what to do with the few I have left.My gut tell's me to leave them alone but I will take advice from the folk's here on TEG,since the folk's on here seem VERY knowledgeable..I hope any of this help's. Thank you for your time <craig

 

[ninnymary]

Gypsy..sorry I can't help you. Here in California we treat our roses differently. I don't even know where zone 7 is. Where are you located?

Welcome to TEG! :rainbow-sun You will meet alot of great people with alot of advise and experience. Hopefully someone from your zone will chime in soon!

Mary

 

[lesa]

I was just listening to our local gardening guru on the noon news today. She says you never need to prune climbing roses, and all others should be pruned 18 inches from the ground. I would say you are lucky yours came back- from that haircut!! I would let them go and trim only winter kill, in the spring...The black spots on the leaves if a kind of fungus- but it is normal and won't harm the plant- those leaves fall off, and the new leaves in the spring will be fresh and green. Happy Gardening!!

 

[gypsyfarm123]

Thank you for the 'welcoming' Ms.NinnyMary zone 7 is N.J. I am about 45 mins inland from the Atlantic city shore.

 

[gypsyfarm123]

Hi there Ms.Lesa I believe we've spoke b4. Its nice to hear from you,and thank you for the reply. I will definitely take your advice. ~I just wish I checked around b4 I butchered them,especially at 25 bucks each!~ live and learn, I guess T/C and thanks again

 

[thistlebloom]

Welcome Gypsyfarm! Wow 20 roses, that's a flower garden!
That's a shame that you lost so many... now, I hope you don't mind if I go a little wild on the rose subject....

Steve was asking about whether they were grafted or "own root" because it will make a big difference in their hardiness and whether they come back true to the variety you bought.


You can tell if it's grafted by looking at the base of the plant. A graft will be a big knob that the canes come out of.

If they are own root you wont see that and if they freeze back to the ground in a bad winter, the roots will send up canes of the same variety you bought.

On the other hand if it's grafted ( grafted roses seem to be much more common at nurseries ) and it freezes back to the roots, the plant will send up canes from the rootstock which is typically a hardy wild type rose with nothing special blooms.

Grafted roses are not necessarily more expensive than own root by the way. From what you paid you must have got some patented varieties.

Pruning, yep, what Steve said. Consider every cut you make either to dead head or to bring a bouquet into the house a type of pruning.

That said, roses will produce better if they are pruned annually to clean up dead, diseased, broken or crossing branches. You want your roses to be an open vase shape. This allows air and light into the center of the plant and reduces disease problems. And like Lesa said, no lower than 18 inches.

If you are just cutting a spent bloom or a fresh bud always try to cut back to a leaf on the outside of the cane that has 5 leaflets on it. Make your cut about a quarter of an inch above the leaf axil. The reason for this is to get the rose branches growing out away from the center of the plant. If you make a habit of doing it this way your annual pruning will be a breeze and your bushes will be more attractive.

Your annual cleanup type pruning should never be in winter because like Steve said, you can always count on some winter kill. Always do it in the spring. I try to do it when the buds are just pushing out some green. That makes it easier to see where the dead stuff is.

And finally, (Iknow... ) when the leaves fall off, clean them up off the ground. That makes a huge difference in overwintering diseases.

I may have muddied the waters here, but really, roses are tough little critters, and very forgiving (if you...ahem... don't cut them off at ground level...). I hope the ones that survived do well for you, and, after all this, you really don't have to prune if you don't want to.

 

[vfem]

I prune mine down to a main stem, not the ground and I do it in Febuary not fall. I honestly don't know why that's what I was supposed to do... it was what I was told, and it did well for us. So I just remember during valentine's season... prune the roses!

 

[gypsyfarm123]

Wow! I've got to save this page, thanks for all the great info,especially 'Thistle',you sure know your rose's! I wish I researched them when I first started buying them. When I was building my house I would pick up a few each week,then it turned into I HAD to HAVE every color they had (that's how I ended up with so many I just checked this morning and they DO look like they are on grafted root stock... I may run down to the place I got them and ask 'pop's' if he know's any different. Oh well, at least I get to start over with all the new varieties next spring! lol thanks to all for the great info! <Craig