How to Prune Roses in Winter

Pruning to Keep Roses Healthy

Cut branches at a 45-degree angle right above the buds. Any pruning cut should be made within ⁄4 inch (0.64 cm) above an emerging rose bud. Cutting the rose branch at an angle near a bud will prevent water from collecting on the top of the cut. The main tool you’ll use for snipping off rose branches is a pair of pruning shears, curved on both edges. If you’re pruning thick stems near the center of the rose bush, use a long pruning saw or lopping shears, depending on how far you need to reach to make the cut.

Remove extra branches that are crowding the bush’s center. One of the primary goals in pruning rose bushes is to remove any extraneous branches and stems from the bush that could impede the flow of air. Cut off branches until you can see through from 1 side of the bush to the other with relatively few branches in your way. A rose bush that is gnarled and choked will have a poor air supply at its center. Consequently, the branches and buds in the middle of the bush won’t grow.

Tear off suckers at the root with your hands. Suckers are small, unwanted rose growths which graft on to the roots of large, established rose bushes. If left to grow, suckers will drain away nutrients from the rose bushes. If you notice a sucker at the base of a plant, dig down through the soil until you find the place where the sucker has grafted onto the root. In most cases, you can use your hand to tear off the small suckers from the roots of rose bushes. If the suckers are more than ⁄8 inch (0.32 cm), though, you may need to use the shears to cut them off.

Cut damaged branches ⁄2 inch (1.3 cm) below the damaged area. Rose branches can be easily damaged during the winter by animals or people running into the bush or by winter winds snapping off branches. If you see any stems that are damaged, prune the stem. This applies whether the damaged branch is almost entirely severed already, or just slightly cracked. If damaged areas are not cut, they often lead to diseased branches.

Remove discolored branches with open lesions. Branches with lesions or discoloration are a clear sign of disease. The diseases that afflict most types of rose bushes are fungal, so you may notice patches of what looks like mildew creeping down the rose stems, or a red-mottled color on the stalk. Trim the rose stem at least ⁄2 inch (1.3 cm) below diseased tissue. After trimming potentially diseased branches, it’s important to sterilize your pruning shears. Do this by spraying the blades with a household cleaner like Lysol, or by dipping the blades in isopropyl alcohol. While pruning for dead and diseased branches can be done at any time of year, it’s especially important to do during winter, before rose bushes “wake up” and begin to grow.

Pruning to Keep Roses Looking Beautiful

Cut off dead wood in a cold-weather climate. If you live in a cold climate, your choices for maintaining the appearance of a rose bush are limited. Simply cut away all of the dead wood that has died over the winter. This will open up the rose bush, and allow air to be drawn all the way into the bush, leading to better growth during the spring. Dead wood will be brittle to the touch, and will not show any emerging buds. If you need some guidance on what your breed of rose bush should look like, visit a nearby botanical garden or public garden, and see how those bushes have been pruned.

Prune away everything but 3–4 canes for a few large blooms. If you live in a warmer climate, you have more options regarding pruning. If you’d like to have a small number of large, beautiful, well-developed roses, prune the bush severely. Leave each of the remaining 3–4 canes about 6–10 inches (15–25 cm) high. When choosing the 3 or 4 canes to remain in the ground, select ones that point in different directions. A rosebush “cane” is a stalk or stem of an individual rose plant.

Cut away all but 5–12 canes for a large, bushy rose bush. If you’re less concerned about the appearance of the individual roses and more concerned with a well-developed rose bush, opt to prune the bush moderately. Leave the 5–12 canes between 18–24 inches (46–61 cm) high. For a more uniform bush, trim all of the canes to the same height. For example, the canes could all be 20 inches (51 cm) high.

Prune clustered areas for a large number of short-stemmed flowers. If you’d like a well-developed rose bush, filled with plenty of clustering, small flowers, opt to only prune the bush lightly. Leave all of the canes in the ground, and just trim some of the more densely clustered areas. For a light pruning, aim to thin out the rose bush by removing less than a third of the stems.