Is my Gardener over pruning?

[SarahBarah]

I hired a new gardener 6 months ago but I question his services, specifically the care of my roses. Last fall he kept them nice and trip at about 18" tall. In late January he severely cut them back to where the twigs were 4" - 6" inches at the most. From there it took about 4 or 5 months to come in and start blooming. My roses were looking great, however not as full as last year, and about half the height and fullness. However they were blooming and we had tons of white roses.

Unfortunately only enjoyed them for 5 weeks before I came home to find all my roses cut back again to about half the size and not a single rose left. I know the rule of thumb is not to trim more than 1/3 of the plant size, and this was more than that. All the roses were gone and so were the tons of new buds. It is as if we have to start all over again in the middle of spring. His response was that he wanted to keep it clean.

I live in Southern California...is this normal? Is it necessary to trim moderately in the middle of blooms late in spring? Will they come back in time for summer?

I am concerned trimming them so severely the first time has caused them not to grow back as full and green and that he unnecessarily cut them back a second time instead of selectively pruning.

Please help! I am so brokenhearted to see my backyard so bare all over again and fear I wont have my big rose bushes back at all this summer.

[imafan26]

Roses in warm climates are treated differently than roses in cool climates.

Where I am in Hawaii, I can get my roses to bloom every six weeks if I time the pruning and feeding cycles. However, if I don't allow the roses to rest from a bloom cycle, I usually will start losing canes, the remaining canes will be spindly and thin and in a couple of years I need to get another rose.

For the roses to last longer, I do have to decide usually around December-January to cut the roses down to the main canes. I still may lose some canes and I still need to replace some of my roses sometime, but my toughest roses will put out longer and stronger canes.

Resting the roses from blooms can sometimes be a good thing as it helps to regenerate the roses.


https://www.ars.org/about-roses/rose-ca ... uidelines/

[applestar]

I really don't know that much about rose care or gardeners, so I can't help there, but I was wondering if you have more than one variety of rose and if the gardener is treating the different varieties according to individual growth habits or if he is chopping them all to sane size regardless?

Also, I was thinking that it sounds like you need to cut at least some of those blossoming and near opening buds to enjoy as cut flowers in the house.

[SarahBarah]

I have about 15 rose bushes running along the back wall of my yard, all being the same rose bush so there is no variety and all are treated / pruned the same.

I understand cutting dead roses is necessary and I wish that was all he did. However the bush was completely cut in half removing the plentiful buds that were there for the next bloom to come in. They bloom continuously from April - October.

It is down to the base of the canes and will take a couple months to grow back in. They were already full of roses and new buds. Are you supposed to "promote" new growth when there already is new growth in action?

What can I do to help them come in faster and fuller?

[ElizabethB]

Hi Sarah - welcome to the forum. It sounds like your gardener did a job on your roses. In warm climates pruning in January/February for summer blooms and again in August/September for fall blooms is common practice.

I can't imagine pruning roses this time of year.

Since our climates are similar you may find this useful.

https://www.lsuagcenter.com/news_archive ... ruary-.htm

I need to grab another link for the late summer pruning. Be right back.

This is the second link.

https://www.lsuagcenter.com/news_archive ... blooms.htm

Unfortunately lots of "gardeners" don't know the first thing about proper pruning. Different plants have different pruning requirements. There are a lot of Crepe Myrtles grown in south Louisiana. I could SCREAM when I see people chop the tops off. That is Crepe Murder!

Hope the links are helpful. Looking forward to hearing more from you.

[lexusnexus]

Sarah, in addition to the above advice it would be better to add your location information (and hardiness zone) in your profile. That way you won't have to include it in each thread.

[feldon30]

Sarah, in addition to the above advice it would be better to add your location information (and hardiness zone) in your profile. That way you won't have to include it in each thread.

Dan is on a mission.