As we approach Spring a lot is going on here at Roses Inc.  The 3000 plus roses in the green houses are beginning to bloom and it sure makes the houses smell sweet in the mornings.  They should be out on the shelves and ready to go by April 13.  You can shop earlier but we will not be able to guaranty anything until after the roses are on the shelves.  The roses are far better off in the protected green house where it is warm and protected from pest for a while longer.  Just because they are for sale other places does not mean that you should buy them.

  

Don't be tempted to make this cut

April is a great time to prune

  

The pruning mistake about to take place in the photo on the right is something I find a lot.  Rosarians afraid to cut the rose back and kill it!  Let me assure you that you will kill it much quicker by not doing the proper cut than you will making a cut that will take off the old, the dead, damaged, diseased and dinky canes.  By making the above cuts your rose will live a very long time.  I know some rosarians leave their roses tall.  A lot of the work at the Tulsa Rose Garden is done that way.  The idea that if you cut them hard, down to pencil size wood, will delay blooming is to a slight degree correct.  It will take them a week or so longer to bloom but the bush is assured to be beautiful and green to the ground. When you leave the old wood, that which has bark on it, the bushes life is shortened and you have a bush that is bare from the ground up to the new growth.  Think about it logically.  The roses roots are the same size after you prune the top as they were before pruning.  They are furnishing the same amount of nutrition and moisture.  If there is less top to feed than the nourishment can be directed into the young growth and into growing new basil breaks. 

At Roses Inc. we have a pruning guide available that will guide you step by step through the pruning process.

  

  

  

Roses after potting, no small canes here!

Anyone can write anything

  

I have been trying to grow roses now for over 40 years.  For the first quarter of that time I did a whole lot wrong.  Now I do not do as much wrong but I am still learning.

It amazes me the people who have been involved in roses for a very short time think that because someone told them or they read it on the Internet it must be correct.  A case in point.  Recently I pruned some roses that were planted last fall.  They were not roses that I had grown as evident by their dinky canes and small size.  Each one of the bushes had a multitude of canes smaller in diameter than a tooth pick.  The person who planted these roses was of the belief that roses had to grow a full year before they could be pruned.  So the fact that I pruned them went against what they believed.  I tell you this story so I can help you understand why you not only prune roses before they are planted a year, sometimes it is necessary to prune them  in the pot before they are planted.  That is unless you buy them from Roses Inc. where we have taken care of that job for you. In fact, every rose we grow is pruned before it is potted and the own root plants will be pruned multiple times before you see them.  As I stated in the first article, it is always necessary to remove the small spindly "dinky"growth to assure you have new substantial canes grow.  Roses are never hurt by correct pruning.  We grow a lot of roses here each year.  Many by growing out cuttings.  As a cutting grows it is continually "pinched" back to make it grow strong.  The idea that cutting a rose back harms the rose  anytime after it breaks the second basil is just wrong.  When you raise roses this information is key to being successful.

One last comment.  Roses Inc. has a guide available to help you choose a rose to plant.  The ones I mentioned above would never be sold here.