When Do You Prune Everblooming Roses?

Along with fertilizing and providing good basic gardening care like watering and pest prevention, correct pruning is essential to roses’ healthy growth and development. Pruning technique and scheduling vary depending on the type of rose and when it blooms.

Pruning Principles

• Everblooming roses, such as hybrid tea, grandiflora, miniature and floribunda varieties, need a heavy pruning once a year, most typically in the spring. Pruning is necessary to remove any dead or diseased canes, to shape the plant and to improve air circulation in the center of the bush. Everblooming roses bloom from June until the fall frost; to encourage new flowers, remove or "deadhead" fading blossoms throughout the growing season.
  

  Climate Considerations

• Depending on your climate, the best time for pruning everblooming roses can range from mid-February to mid-April. Because cutting back roses stimulates new growth, do not heavily prune roses before the risk of a hard frost has safely passed. Rose growers in warm-weather climates that enjoy long growing seasons can also prune everblooming roses in late August to encourage additional blooms throughout the fall.
  

  Tip

• If still unsure of the best time to prune in your area, use the rose growers’ rule of thumb: Prune when the local forsythias begin to bloom.