The main tool you’ll use for snipping off rose branches is a pair of pruning shears, curved on both edges. If you’re pruning thick stems near the center of the rose bush, use a long pruning saw or lopping shears, depending on how far you need to reach to make the cut.
A rose bush that is gnarled and choked will have a poor air supply at its center. Consequently, the branches and buds in the middle of the bush won’t grow.
In most cases, you can use your hand to tear off the small suckers from the roots of rose bushes. If the suckers are more than 1⁄8 inch (0. 32 cm), though, you may need to use the shears to cut them off.
If damaged areas are not cut, they often lead to diseased branches.
After trimming potentially diseased branches, it’s important to sterilize your pruning shears. Do this by spraying the blades with a household cleaner like Lysol, or by dipping the blades in isopropyl alcohol. [10] X Research source While pruning for dead and diseased branches can be done at any time of year, it’s especially important to do during winter, before rose bushes “wake up” and begin to grow.
Dead wood will be brittle to the touch, and will not show any emerging buds. If you need some guidance on what your breed of rose bush should look like, visit a nearby botanical garden or public garden, and see how those bushes have been pruned.
When choosing the 3 or 4 canes to remain in the ground, select ones that point in different directions. A rosebush “cane” is a stalk or stem of an individual rose plant.
For a more uniform bush, trim all of the canes to the same height. For example, the canes could all be 20 inches (51 cm) high.
For a light pruning, aim to thin out the rose bush by removing less than a third of the stems.
