[Rose-list] Pruning Experiment

**"* <r*@transport.com>**

I just finished John Scarman's wonderful book "Gardening with Old
Roses".  He talks about pruning the roses 3 times a year.  So, I did
an experiment (of sorts) with two of my "Red Yankton" roses [Found
roses that are thick with canes and act a bit like a Gallica, though
I've not been able to ID it yet.]   They are once blooming. One rose
I pruned (my favorite part of gardening) just as he said and the
other I tried my best to restrain and prune only once as you would
most old once blooming roses.

I would highly recommend you read this part of his book if your
interested as it gets into great detail with good pictures. 
Basically it goes like this with the ONCE blooming old roses.
(slightly different with repeats and not at all with rugosas).  

First pruning is removing the "vegetative growth" to the flowering
height to "shape the bush" and return it to neat form; done just as
the blooms are opening.  Second pruning is in late summer after
blooming, and again removing "vegetative growth" (usually a target
for aphids and mildew anyhow) is pruned back to the flowering height
for neatness; he calls this architectural appearance.  Final pruning
is done anytime between autumn and spring to the ''pruning height" as
you should normally do.  

Overall I loved the neater appearance of the 3x pruned rose all year
long. Now that rose is a well formed rounded bush, were as the
''control'' rose (I confess, I did prune it some at the 2nd pruning
as I just couldn't stand it, but just a little) is nice at the top,
but has more than a foot of ''bare'' cane growth in the middle and is
now getting floppy with rain, foliage and wind. It also appears that
the 3x pruned rose has more buds, but it could be that they are just
easier to see in a neater "package", so I was thrilled that it in no
way lessened the blooms.  I'm a believer.  

He also suggests that new roses should NOT be allowed to gain more
that 6 inches in height each year. I'm less strict on this one..but
along with the ''control'' rose, I have 5 or 6 others that should
have been pruned harder, which I will do this year.

Sincerely,       
~Carleen~
Keeper of Sheep & Old Roses 

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