The secondary reason gardener’s love to grow rose bushes is because they provide us with fresh cut roses for indoor enjoyment. There is a right way and a wrong way to cut roses, the wrong way will harm your rose bush and the right way will invigorate your rose bush.
Cutting the blooms off of a rose bush is a horticultural operation with you being the surgeon. You need sharp, sterile cutting instruments to perform the horticultural operation. Improper cutting or twisting with dull instruments will harm the rose bush and decrease it’s vigor and/or create a wound in the rose bush that will allow disease or insects to get a toehold.
Sterilize your cutting instrument in a bleach and water solution before cutting roses and after each cut. Mix 1 part bleach with 10 parts water and dip the cutting shears in the disinfecting solution.
It is best not to cut roses off of a rose bush during it’s first growing season. If you allow the roses to remain on the rose bush until they are ready to be dead-headed, the rose bush will grow more rapidly and become better established during that first crucial year.
When you cut roses, cut the rose stem back to the first 5 leaf cluster of foliage only and always leave at least 2 leaves between the cut and the main stem of the rose bush. Taking more foliage than is needed will rob the rose bush of it’s food manufacturing capabilities and will hinder the growth and flower production of the rose bush.
The best time to cut roses is in the early morning before the sun hits the rose bush. The rose bush won’t be under heat stress and the rose itself will be the most fragrant at that time since the sun has not evaporated the rose oil from the petals.
Cut roses just as the petals are beginning to unfurl from the bud. The rose buds will continue to open and will last much longer than a rose cut when it’s already fully opened. Have a container of water handy to immediately place your cut rose in.
New shots on a rose bush will usually produce 3 rose buds at the tips. The center rose bud will be the largest, with 2 smaller side rose buds. If you will pinch off the 2 smaller side buds, the rose bush’s energy will go into the one remaining rose bud on the stem and produce a larger rose for cutting.
If you don’t wish to cut all your roses and allow them to mature on the rose bush, the rose bush will need to be dead-headed or disbudded to keep the rose bush growing vigorously. Remove the rose when the petals fall off with sharp, disinfected shears or clippers, cutting back to the top most leaf on the rose stem.
Cluster blooming roses need to be dead headed as each individual rose bloom begins to fade in the clusters. This will give the remaining individual roses in the cluster more room to develop.
