How to Trim Roses For Winter

Read on to discover how to trim roses for winter and save your rose bushes during the cold weather seasons!

Snow and cold weather pose many hazards to roses, including freezing growth and damaging the plant. During winter, roses go dormant and grow poorly. As such, they should be given extra attention and care if you really want to last until spring.

How to Prepare Roses for Winter

Pruning and trimming your roses properly during the colder seasons can help.

The best time to do this is during August before it actually begins to snow and freezing weather sets in. Trimming helps the roses tolerate the extreme cold and maintain their health throughout the season. Trim or cut any diseased or undesirable limbs from the rose plants which can infect the other parts of the plant too.

Pruning can actually be done anytime. However, pruning the fruit and flowering-bearing parts should be done mid to late summer.

It is fairly similar to the regular trimming that you perform in other seasons. Despite the slight variation of the process, you will find out later that it actually revolves around three great reasons, maintenance, efficiency, and conditioning of the roses. Well, this isn’t different from trimming other trees actually. However, to have a closer look at how it should be done, here are the basic things you need to know.

As always, the initial thing to consider with every procedure is to prepare the necessary tools to be used for the process which includes garden shear, gloves, and the container for the trimmed canes.

Examine the roses intently. Identify the parts that are on their way to becoming completely discolored or becoming diseased. Perhaps, you can focus on the canes. Look out for crossing canes or canes that lie close to each other.

If you find some canes growing heavily, trim them first as they can be the first ones to get damaged when snow falls. Just be sure you do not be trimming the branches too much. Just trim them to one-quarter of an inch above your rosebud. And, ensure that the canes of the plant are even.

You can trim the roses for you vases during winter if you wish. However, keep the trimming to a minimum during autumn and snow as snow inhibits the growth of roses. The best time for heavy trimming is during the spring season when flowers usually bloom to their full extent.

When you come across crossing branches, don’t hesitate to trim them back to the point where they were connected to avoid the frictional damage brought about by strong winter winds and snow. After the pruning and trimming process, you have to seal all the cuts with a sealing compound. Doing so will defend the plants from damage from snow. Remove any suckers found on the plants also. Remember that these suckers feed on plants and may destroy your plant before it reaches spring.

Now, if you think about decomposing the cut canes, place them in a bucket but never place them on the soil your rose plants are. They can still infect your plants.

Knowing how to trim roses for snow is a good thing. And, it is absolutely beneficial to the plants when it snows. In fact, since trimming can be done for most trees also, it brings out the best of what they can provide. If you haven’t noticed, the more trimming and severe cutting you made on the stems, the more shoots there will be. When that time comes, there would surely be more challenges on your part while trimming.

It can be quite a hassle but it is surely satisfying and gratifying to see your plants grows lavishly throughout the seasons.