Pruning Tea Roses

Pruning Rose Bushes

The correct way for pruning tea roses for bigger flowers, is to prune the tea roses more severely than other types of rose bushes.

I you take out more of the plant, it will channel it's energy into fewer canes, which produce a lot bigger rose flowers.

Pruning rose bushes, Hybrid tea rose, is not as hard as people think. Just follow some basic rules.

When pruning a typical hybrid tea rose bush, the darker canes are the best ones to remove.

'Fragrant Cloud' One of The Fragrant Tea Roses

Cold weather, insects and disease most likely have done some damage to your tea roses since you last pruned them. So take a good look at the rose plant.

If you notice that some canes are brown/gray or shriveled, instead of green, cut off a piece so you can tell for sure if it's dead.

A dead cane is brown inside, and a healthy cane has white sort of color inside. Prune the cane back until you see healthy white inside the cane. You might have to prune it all the way to the ground. Which means it is a totally dead cane. Get rid of it!

How To Prune Roses

Now you have to decide about what to remove and what to save. The goal when pruning tea roses, is to save the healthiest canes, these are the flowering canes, and remove everything else.

The healthy canes are thicker with green color. Old canes are brown or gray and old looking. Then remove any twiggy canes that are small and scraggly looking.

You'd want the flowering canes to be as evenly spaced around the plant as possible, and you should also try to leave the center of the bush open, without any canes.

When you are finished pruning the tea roses, the plant should be shaped like a cup with the flowering canes around the outside.

How many flowering canes you select, depends on the age and vigor of the rose bush. If the rose plant was recently planted, leave about three to five flowering canes.

An older tea rose can support more canes.

Pruning Techniques for Other Rose Types

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