Pruning roses

More about pruning

Roses like hybrid teas, grandifloras, floribundas, and miniatures produce the best flowers on new or current season's wood. To ensure this type of wood, these roses are pruned very hard in early spring. This usually means removing about one-half to two-thirds of the plant's height and reducing the number of canes.
Suggested pruning sequence:

• Remove all dead canes; cut them off at the base or point of discoloration.
• Remove small, weak canes.
• Leave 3 to 5 healthy, stout canes evenly spaced around the plant.
• Cut these canes back, leaving 3 to 5 outward-facing buds.

Modern Shrub Roses

Repeat-flowering shrub roses bear flowers on mature stems that are not old and woody. Severe pruning of these roses would result in reduced flower production. In their first two or three seasons in the garden, shrub roses can be left unpruned. Wait to see what shape develops and then try to prune so that the shape is maintained. Many modern shrub roses are pruned by a method called the "one-third" method. Suggested pruning sequence:

• In the spring, remove one-third of the very oldest canes. This helps keep the plant from becoming an overgrown thicket of poor-flowering canes.
• Replace these canes by identifying about one-third of the very youngest canes that grew the previous season.
• Remove the remaining canes
  

 The result of this one-third method is that you are continually renewing the rose while at the same time keeping enough mature wood to ensure a good supply of flower-producing wood.