An old neighbor made me rethink how I prune my roses

Last Tuesday, Mrs. Alvarez, who's been gardening here in Tucson since the 70s, told me I was cutting my roses like a barber instead of a gardener, and now I can't stop noticing how I've been chasing blooms instead of building the plant's shape, so has anyone else had a simple comment from an older gardener flip their whole routine?

1 comments

1 Comment

nora_barnes14d agoMost Upvoted

Ask her what exactly she meant by building the plant's shape, because I bet she saw something specific you were missing. Like, were you cutting all the canes back to the same height, leaving that hedge look, instead of letting some older wood arch out to open up the middle? I did the same thing for years, always snipping the tallest bloom and leaving everything else, so my roses got leggy and bare at the base. Did she point out a certain branch or bud you should've kept, or was it more about the whole plant's structure? I'm wondering if she told you to think about next spring's growth instead of this summer's flowers, which is a totally different way to see it.