Yes, every time you cut the topsides, the roots die back to match what you've chopped off. Poor plants! Plus they have to heal where the dead part meets what's still living, hey?

So often hindsight is just common sense realized and recognized.

Ah, great! Now I know I've been being sensible when I just thought I was lazy. (And I almost can't stand to cut off healthy plant growth of any kind anyway.)

Ralph Moore told me many years ago that the topside should always match the roots in length. So if you have a bareroot rose and the roots are approx. 8" long, you should trim the canes to about 8" also. Does anyone here do that? I haven't planted a bareroot rose in a few years now.

I've never paid any attention to it, Betty, but I will from now on. I've noticed that the canes on Cliff's roses are cut down to a point shorter than the roots. Believe me, that's a good idea when they're being planted in July and August. They show no signs whatsoever of shipping damage or transplant shock. I'm having some septic tank problems right now and I'm having to move some huge, huge roses, so I'm cutting them down to look just like the ones I get from Cliff.

Oh bummer, so the septic tank did need more work after all, just what you were hoping wouldn't happen.

Yes, didn't you hear my blood-curdling scream all the way across highway 116? So far, only about 6-8 roses have to be moved in order to send a camera through the leach lines to check for roots, but if the lines are hopelessly clogged, I might have to move as many as 500 roses. They would have to bring in a backhoe, so everything on both sides of the long pathway from the street would have to be moved, not to mention everything currently planted above the lines. The roses probably would survive, but Rhododendrons hate being moved and there are three big ones near that pathway. Sections of the fence would also have to be removed. It's a hideous prospect. I also can't help feeling I'm being conned. I really don't trust men.

In the meantime, Jose (I trust him, of course) is finishing up the sunroom and solarium roofs and is repairing all of the havoc Tiger and Frodo wreaked in the solarium. No more cats in there! Ever!!! They broke everything that was breakable, including a $500 lamp, knocked the screens out of most of the windows, and used the rug, the furniture, and the stair posts as scratching pads, and they're not even supposed to be my cats. Now I want my room back. Ironically, I originally added that room and the library onto the house as cat-free havens and filled them with everything I wanted to keep safe from rambunctious and spraying cats.

Oh wow, that is a daunting project, moving all that! What a big hassle. There must be something positive for the garden at the other end of this project, a new design perhaps?

Oh my, what a nuisance! Let's hope it is a simple blockage in an accessible spot. If not it might be preferable to replace your system with an aerobic one which does not use a leech field (?) I have no idea of the cost comparison, however.

I had a room nearly destroyed by cats also when my son's cats visited while he was moving. I had to repaint and replace the flooring - fortunately there wasn't much breakable in there, so the cats just "marked their territory", in the room in which they were fed. Ycck!

I really did feel I was being conned by the septic guys, so I told them yesterday that there was no way a rose would send roots down more than 3 feet. Therefore, the leach lines couldn't possibly be clogged by roots. There isn't a single tree anywhere near the leach lines. As soon as I told them I just wanted them to hydrojet the lines, which is what I called for back in April and they've been coming up with more and more new "diagnoses" ever since, they told me there was a second tank that had to be dug up, and it was under the deck, which would have to be partially removed and then replaced. I told them I'd call them as soon as Jose had dug it up and sent them away.

Jose had to move my spectacular Sally Holmes, which had been covering the deck for about 20 years, to dig for the second tank. As soon as he moved the rose and started to dig, he found the pipe coming from the house to the "first" tank, which means it's the only tank. Can you imagine how much these guys would have charged me to tear down my deck and replace it while they were pretending there was a second tank?

What a fraud! You need a different septic company!

Well, it's all done and presumably fixed, and it didn't even cost much at all. I think they were terribly embarrassed by the "second tank" fiasco. I'm just glad it's over. I've been trying to get the tank pumped and the lines hydrojetted since April. It sounds so simple, doesn't it? Jose usually handles all of this kind of stuff for me, doing everything himself or calling in friends or relatives who can do certain things better, but no one in his large clan works on septic tanks, so I had to call in the Anglos. For all the whining some people in this state do about Mexican immigrants, they aren't the scam artists.

Zuzu - you know, does NOT surprise me at all. Pretty sad. But I'm glad that you didn't have to lose your deck over this!!

Was catching up on the pruning info so when it finally does start cooling off here (and sooooooo looking forward to it) I'd know what to do...and it looks like I'm just going to leave 'em alone this fall!

Zuzu, I'm in total agreement with you on the hiring out...fence posts in solid limestone for over 300 feet of privacy fencing. egads.

Zuzu, I am glad that this is over. There are so many unscrupulous contractors. When I lived in NJ, they had several "licensed" septic people that were authorized to install lines. A perfect opportunity for price fixing. Luckily, line cleaning was adequate. Each time that the line was cleaned, they tried to get the entire leach field, etc, done. It isn't my problem anymore, thank goodness.

I can't imagine moving 500 roses....

Both my roses and I have been having a tough year. The weather has been terrible - icy winter, wet spring, early heat wave, torrential rains and flooding, now time to get ready for winter! I haven't been online much, but if you want to see some pictures of blackspot.....

I like the idea of minimal pruning. My Austin Wildeve rose is still recovering from an overzealous amateur pruning job by yours truly last spring. Luckily, she is a very healthy, own root rose.

I did some heavy pruning in July and then watered judicially so they would have a good start. My roses are looking so ratty right now because I stopped deadheading in preparation for winter. My fingers itch to deadhead, but I'm thinking that we're going to have a long, cool fall (thank GOODNESS!!) before winter hits. The deer are not showing signs of a lot of snow (no extremely heavy coat, no "grey" fur - still the reddish brown), and I'm not seeing that many geese heading south. Only problem with not deadheading is that I *know* I could get another big flush of roses, but it's just not worth it to me.. I want them all to survive the winter.

zuzu said: Fallon now cuts down all of the rose bushes in the cutting gardens at Garden Valley Ranch to 6-12" several times a year. As soon as one flush of blooms ends, she chops them down to nothing and they produce roses for bouquets with incredibly long stems soon afterward.

She discovered the method in much the same way as your Weedwhacker experience. The deer came onto the property and chewed the roses down to nothing. She cried and cried and cursed the deer, but subsequently discovered it was the very best thing for a cutting garden.

zuzu, this is what I am trying to figure out for a while. How to prune roses after first flash to keep them short.I do not want to have monsteras in my small garden any more…

I remember year's ago.( to many) The rose grower Harry Wheatcroft
Recommended pruning roseses with a garden shears!,,
Great posts from Zuzu as ever.

Hi ,

My mom bought a rose plant around 2006 after our dog Mysti passed away. Mysti's rose was called "Beloved". So I'm assuming its the hybrid tea known by that name. Red, perfect 'greeting card photo with the dewdrop' looking beautiful rose.

We don't really know what we're doing when it comes to caring for roses. But this one seems to still be going, 2 other grafted tree roses we had sadly eventually died and I don't know why.

Anyway, I want to do right by Mysti's Beloved Rose and I just don't know how to properly prune. I think I'm kinda getting it a little from what I've learned from the rose books we have from Sunset and Ortho and Dummies.

But I just want to ask some experts what they recommend based on a photo I can upload.

They're really tall and then branch out in a sort of shape like a person with arms outstretched for a hug and a slight curve upward.
All photos and illustrations I see on pruning don't look like this and seem to go in an upward diagonal angle. I thought hybrid tea is a bush?
Im not sure if there was a bud union atop a trunk like the other roses we had. Or how it was when she purchased it. I know she had planted it in a small wooden barrel type planter and then later replanted it in the ground after the barrel deteriorated and fell apart.

Would anyone be willing to check out a photo of Mysti's rose and offer advice on pruning? I would be so grateful. Even with my novice care and pruning, this rose produces the most gorgeous blooms. At least there is that.

Where should I post the photo? This is my first time visiting and posting, so please forgive me if I have posted in the wrong place.

Thank you 🙏

You may add a photo to your original post, or put it in a separate one.

This old thread should be read by everyone - an oldie but a goodie. I often hear people blaming themselves for not pruning and thus neglecting their roses. I have always used the leave the living stuff alone philosophy and it works fine. (I also have a lot of acreage.)

Here's a longer exposition of these rules:

https://garden.org/ideas/view/...