How to prune roses: Expert tips for healthier, more vibrant blooms

Roses have been admired for their beauty and fragrance for many years. Their delicate petals, available in countless colours and shapes, adorn gardens, parks, and bouquets. However, growing these exceptional plants requires appropriate knowledge and care. According to some gardeners, rose care is an art that combines patience, observation, and understanding of their needs.

Pruning roses is one of the most critical maintenance activities that affect their health, appearance, and abundance of flowering. Regular pruning helps keep the bushes in good condition, stimulates them to produce new shoots, and removes old, diseased, or damaged plant parts. It's also a way to allow more light and air to reach the flowers. This makes the roses more resistant to diseases and pests, and their flowers become more prominent, more beautiful, and longer-lasting.

Caring for roses by pruning them is not only a way to achieve an aesthetic appearance of the bush but, above all, an investment in its health and abundance of flowers. While summer pruning is more delicate than spring, omitting this treatment can weaken the plant.

Roses are usually pruned at the beginning of spring, but you can also perform this activity later to remove faded blooms. After the first wave of blooming, focus on pruning multi-flowered and climbing roses, which bloom again. Removing faded flowers stimulates the rose to produce new buds, making the plant a delight to the eye with more abundant flowers.

Faded roses should be pruned very gently, preferably with sharp pruning shears. Cut off parts of the shoot along with one or two leaves. Such pruning stimulates the plant to create new buds, translating into more abundant flowering in the current and future seasons.