Roses, roses, roses!

It’s that time of year and bare root roses are available at your local nursery! It’s time to prune your own precious petals! I do a hard prune followed by a good dose of neem oil, because my roses get very fungus-forward this time of year. Now for my climbers, remove all the dead, diseased and crossing canes, and most anything smaller than a pencil . I pick those horizontal main canes as my anchors (no more than six) and prune side shoots (laterals) by 1/3 or half. Some gardeners untie and sort of retrain the canes, I just make sure they are running nice and horizontal and retie and train if they are not. If you have lots of old, woodsy branches they can be cut to the ground; climbers are remarkably resilient.

I adore my Golden Opportunity climber, she had a slow start but she picked up speed! The burst of color and strong, fruity scent are a really boon the garden! Are you a rose superfan like me?

Dreaming of spring!