Friday, January 16, 2009

Pruning the Climbers

Here is one last rose on the arbor over the steps to the eucalyptus grove in Laguna. It is a 'Sally Holmes' rose and one of my favorites because of its simple elegance. Although the long canes are left on the climbing roses, the offshoots are trimmed to two nodes and all of the leaves are stripped off and thrown in the trash to avoid spreading diseases and fungus that are inevitably on most roses this time of year.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

It must be hard, just the same, to snip away at such a beautiful rose. :) It will make it all the better, of course, next blooming season.

Unknown said...

I am always confused about pruning roses.

Gail said...

Hi! Like Darla pruning is confusing.
I have been thinking about getting Red Cascade but without good pruning, I hear it can get unruly! Any thoughts?

Gail

Sheila said...

I am not familiar with Red Cascade. I have White Cascade growing on my house in Laguna and I love it. Pruning is not really that hard once you learn a few basics that you can get in any rose book. The good news is that no matter what you do, you really can't hurt a rose. They come back time and time again after a good pruning as well as a poor one and they seem to thrive either way!