Rosarie De La Hay just south of Paris
The dog days of summer are a great time to do a quick summer clean up on your roses in order to get them ready for the fall bloom. They generally do semi-dormant during the heat and that’s another reason this is a great time for this.
If you live in an area with Japanese Beetles, trimming the roses when they are out minimizes the damage. The other reason I like doing when they are out is I don’t have to worry about spraying to keep them away. I always feel its best to work together with nature.
Make sure you do this early enough in the summer so you aren’t spurring tender new growth well into fall. If you get an early frost you might damage that growth and that is never good for roses.
This is not meant to be a radical clean-up, but rather a light trimming and shaping. Doing so will really set your roses up for that fall display!
Here are a few tips:
- Do this sometime in the start or middle of summer so you don’t spur new growth close to the first frost.
- Start by taking off all the dead wood.
- Cut out twiggy and weak growth.
- Trim the rest back keeping in mind how you want the rose to grow.
For further information:
- Please see our blog post “Hot Weather Tips”
Enjoy the video:
