Roses are great and, other than an annual pruning, take little work. Look at our front yard rose garden above. Lookin' good, right? Well, can you see the little work that needs to be done?
Unfortunately, roses don't look good forever. After a week or so, the flowers are done. Either pollinated or just played out.
Here, you can see a haggard looking Julie Newmar that has seen better days. It's time to deadhead.
I said roses took little work...this is the little work that they take. Deadheading is just the cutting off of spent blooms.
Most advice tells you to go down until you see the first set of 5 leaflets and cut just above that. That's sound advice. If the plant would look better going down a couple of more sets of 5 leaflets, go ahead and do it.
Remember that this is not pruning, just maintaining. If all the flowers pollinate, leaving them on the plant will severely hamper bloom production so we want to get rid of them when we're done...just cut them off, no need to do deep pruning during the season.
I like to deadhead just before I mow my lawn. I just throw the cuttings on the grass and mow them into the lawn as a mulch.
All done, here's my front rose garden after it's first haircut of the season.
Darryl
Copyright 2013 - Darryl Musick
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You have some beautiful roses! It's a really good idea, too, to deadhead just before you mow. Thanks for the tip!
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