It’s been a long time since I’ve seen such a lovely spring! Here in Connecticut, we had some heavy rain/flash flooding bouts in March. But, we also had lovely spring weather with temperatures in the 60’s. April came in as soft as a first kiss. It then warmed up quickly into the 80’s and one 93 degree day! When this happens, things start growing really fast. Now there is a lot to do in the garden in a hurry.

April Flowers

The forsythia bloomed seemingly overnight. And that is our clue to clean up the rose garden, plant our new specimens, and begin pruning. Most of us hilled up our roses in early winter here in the north. Now that material needs to be carefully removed so as not to disturb any new growth which may be shooting up from the base of the plant. We call these ‘basal breaks’. They are exciting to see because it means the rose is happy and spreading out with new canes! Wear your gloves and gently remove what you can manually, and then I like to use a small bamboo stake to wiggle the mulch that I like to protect with away from the canes.

Once the winter protection is removed, it’s time to inspect your canes to see how they fared, and prune to stimulate new growth and remove winter damage for April. Looking down the canes, you will be able to see where the leaf petioles were last year. Prune back your canes as short or as long as you like (on Hybrid Teas, Grandifloras, Floribundas, Minis and Mini Floras), but try to identify and prune back to an outward-facing bud. This will produce a brand new cane that will grow away from the center of the plant. You will want to prune out any canes that cross over, as their prickles will injure themselves when the wind blows. These pruning practices will also help to open up the center of the plant to increase air circulation and hopefully cut down on fungus diseases.

After Pruning

Once you have pruned your rose to your satisfaction, you may want to seal up the canes with some Elmer’s Glue. I make my cuts at 45 degree angles about 1/4″ above an outward facing bud. I always apply Elmer’s, because it dries clear and borers cannot drill holes down through the canes. These are tiny, beneficial wasps that drill a perfect hole down through our canes, fly away to find a tiny caterpillar which they sting to anesthetize, they then drag it down the hole they made and lay an egg on it.

The wasp larva feeds on the caterpillar after it hatches, and will eventually emerge as an adult wasp. Now, while all this is very interesting, I really don’t want all this activity happening in my rose canes–especially because the cane will die back to the bottom of the hole the wasp has bored. Hence, the Elmer’s. It’s inexpensive, non-toxic, easy to apply, and it keeps the borers out. Don’t worry about the borers…I have seen them drill holes in bamboo stakes, hydrangea canes, anything that puts up pencil-sized or bigger stick-like growth that has been cut back.

April Roses

Shrub roses can be as lightly trimmed or as heavily pruned as you like. Just make sure you trim out any dead wood and winter damaged canes down to green cane and white pith. Climbing roses are similar…just prune out anything that died over the winter.

It takes a lot of energy for your roses to leaf out in the spring, and most of that energy has been stored by the rose in the canes last fall. You will want to help your roses in their waking-up process by providing them with plenty of water should Mother Nature be a little stingy with rain! Wait awhile to start fertilizing…the soil has to warm up to 50 degrees before plant food becomes available to the root system.

Don’t forget to pull up any weeds hanging around! You don’t want them getting the water and nutrients that your roses need. Once you’ve pruned, watered, and weeded, you and your roses will be leaping toward first flush!!

Next time, planting potted and bare root roses…and enjoy this lovely spring! For me, spring is just like falling in love all over again!