How to Deadhead Roses

Posted on July 26th, 2009 by Elaine

(No Ratings Yet)

Loading ...

No Comments (Post Comment)

Republish

Lovely roses are a delightful plant to have in your garden, but if you don’t know how to take care of them, they won’t thrive. One task you need to do is to deadheading, or the removal of spent and wilted blooms to make the plant produce new flowers. Deadheading is a simple task, but one that needs to be done properly. Here’s how to do it.

What You’ll Need:

Sharp pruner
Gardening gloves
A container to hold the spent blooms
White glue

Procedure:

Slip into a pair of gardening gloves. Rose bushes are filled with sharp thorns that will prick and scratch your hands when you reach into them. If possible, wear a thick and woolly sweater, too, so your arms won’t be scratched.
Find the spent rose blooms on the bush. If you see flowers that have petals dropping from them or are starting to wilt, those need to be removed.
As soon as you’ve found a spent rose, follow its stem, and find the first set of five leaves beneath it. This is the healthiest, and where you should cut. Usually, there are some groups made of three leaves under the flower directly, so you’ll need to go down further to look for the first group which has five leaves.
Using your pruner, cut the stem cleanly at a 45 degree angle, parallel to the angle of the shoot. Position the cut slightly above the group of five leaves. Angling the cut is very important, since if the stem is cut straight across, it may rot because it won’t be able to shed water.
Repeat the steps for the other spent blooms.
Water the rose bush when you’re done. You don’t need to seal the cut, but if there are cane-boring wasps in your area, you’ll need to do this using white glue.

Some Tips:

If there’s danger of frost, don’t deadhead the roses. Let the blooms harden for the winter season.
If your bushes have thick or tough canes, a hand pruner might not be enough. Use an anvil pruner instead.
Make sure your pruner is sharp. A dull one will only cause more harm than good.

Keep your roses healthy and beautiful by deadheading them properly. Remember these steps and your bushes will stay lovely all year round.