We've done a whole bunch of clearing and cutting back and such in the front yard...boxwoods cut way down, other random bushes cleared out etc. In doing so, I uncovered a rose bush!! Ed had completely forgotten it was there...he ex father-in-law gave it to them as a wedding gift (he apparently grows prize winning roses,) his ex Julie planted it, and then I think it go no further attention. So, here it is. Ed doesn't know what kind of rose bush it is, but says he was shown a picture of what it would look like when it grew, and it's nothing like what he remembers, I think because it was never pruned and left to grow wild, so instead of the very full, rounded mass of leaves and gorgeous blooms he remembers from the photos, it's a tall, leggy, spindly ugly thing. I'm going to post the pictures I took. I have no idea if you need more detail or other close ups, but if you do let me know and I'll get more. My inclination is just to prune the thing to about 12 inches off the ground, and force it to put out new shoots below the cuts, so that it eventually gains more leafing out and shape much lower to the ground. I don't know if that's wise though, or the right approach, so please, help!!!! What do I do, and how to I approach pruning this thing to best advantage in the hopes of creating a better shape? And here's a brand new baby shoot coming up from the ground!
This is the time of the year to trim back rose bushes, I would go ahead and cut it back to just above the lowest leaf node. It is going to look terrible if left like it is but should fill out just fine with new growth this spring.
Lowest leaf node? Hmm...well I guess that's part of my problem. I've had the idea that one should do that with rose bushes. but the lowest leaf node on this one, given how spindly it's gotten, it at least 3/4 of the way up its various stalks. I can't help but think of it growing and leafing out to resemble a balloon looking thing on top of some long stalks. Can I prune it lower? Y'know, so that it actually has some shape?
Even if the node is high up, prune just above it and wait to see if leaves appear lower down, then you can prune again. There has to be a leaf node on the stem for it to produce more leaves, if you trim way down and cut off possible still dormant leaf nodes you might not get any growth at all except on the very tip then that turns scraggly looking pretty quickly.
OK toni, I've pruned it the way you suggested. Man it looks ugly!!! That's not just as a result of the pruning, it looked ugly before that! How long before I might see those lower down leaves appear, if they're going to?
One more thing to add ... that last picture shows a new shoot coming from under the ground. You may want to make sure this shoot doesn't come from below the graft. The rootstalk could be from a completely different Rose, and it could cause the Rose bush to revert.
Oh, I hadn't thought of that Netty. My original Blaze climbing rose reverted to it's rootstock after a really bad winter in the early 1990s (10 straight days of temps consistently below 10 degrees all day). The next spring it was white, the year after that it had red blooms and white blooms, the 3 rd year the white had died off and it was back to all red blooms again. My Blue Girl has reverted to its rootstock of a red rose. Ronni, Now that the roots do not have to expend energy keeping all those long stems alive it can concentrate on new growth of leaves. I don't exactly how long it will take but probably by the end of April I would think.
Um...ok. I have no idea what that means. I don't know what "below the graft" means, or what it means for a rose bush to revert. I don't know anything about this rose bush, so if it "reverts" from some former iteration, I wouldn't know it. Would I?
Ronni, all of us felt clueless when we started and when it comes to some plants and methods of gardening some of us still feel clueless. That's where asking questions and reading information comes in handy. I am not sure the reason behind it, but almost all (if not all) roses are grafted onto the root of another type of rose. (cuttings from the new plant are embedded into the stem of another rose where they become one with the graft rose and grow into the beautiful roses of all colors you see at nurseries) Gently scrape the dirt away from the base of that new stalk and you will see where it is coming out of the mother plant. That stalk will be very close to the root ball if it is a 'sport' (the name of the reverted stalk) further away from the root ball will be a lumpy bit of rose stalk where the cutting was embedded into the mother plant, that is the graft point. Any stalks that grow between that graft point and the roots are from the graft plant and will usually be a totally different species and color.....stalks after the lumpy bit will be the plant that was grafted to the roots.
Toni thanks SO much for this info. Amazing!! Who knew roses were done this way??? I'll do my research next time I'm over there.
