Whole New Year

I'm very excited about the garden this year. In fact, this is going to be a stellar year for gardening. For one thing, I've shaken off the desire to grow vegetables in my small city plot, which -sorry all, is liberating. I've got this whole new arena now to work on in the side yard with the yew tree down after the heavy snowfall. I was thinking this evening as I pruned the roses about my commitment to this garden. It's the longest I've tended one place. Over the last 20 years I relentlessly read books, worked for landscapers and Manhattan rooftop designers, and even worked at a retail nursery. But, for all that -I've never really had a garden, not for more than a year. And that's what it takes -many years, to settle in to it, know it deeply, and grow.

This evening, pruning roses, I thought about the toughness of that act. I thought about pulling out two of the roses, maybe. I remembered the sensation of working late on busy spring days. I smelled the neighbor's barbecue -so good. I heard the children playing in the street and the chatter of Shenanigans. Pruning the roses is about attention -to avoid thorns, to untangle branches, to shape or imagine shaping, and finally, to wear the garden like an article of spring clothing.

I've pruned the 'Knockout' rose hard. Should it be knocked out of the garden?

'New Dawn' will live to see another, tangled as it is with two plants: honeysuckle and clematis.

It and the clematis were spared the diesel shovel when I pulled them from their first home and plunked them in my front yard. The clematis is showing more impressive growth this year than the last three, but has never flowered in its new home. 'New Dawn', however, is built like a tank.

Hip Snip

This is a rose 'hip' from my Rosa 'New Dawn' climber in a previous year.

The hips haven't turned red-orange yet this year. In an ordinary year, most of my climber's hips turn brown or black and shrivel. I spent a few minutes today pruning these ugly hips off the plant, leaving the healthy green ones to turn red later this autumn.

You Know Its Frost Free Time When...

The Aphids come along.

I have three rose bushes in my front yard garden. One is a the climber, New Dawn. The other two are pictured here. On the left is Rosa "Knockout" and on the right is an old Tea Rose I ripped out of my grandmother's backyard before her house was sold. I pruned the knockout heavy this year. The Tea is about 50 years old.

The leaves and bud on the old Tea

As you can see in the above picture, there's not one aphid on the Tea. Whole plant completely clear.

The leaves on the Knockout

But the Knockout, literally 18 inches from the Tea has a good colony of Aphids on many of the young leaf shoots. Why do they prefer the Knockout over the Tea or the New Dawn? This isn't particular to this year either. I don't believe it has to do with the hard prune, but does it? The Knockout can handle it though, its one tough mother.

No Anomolies Here

The Climbing Hydrangea is leafing out. In my garden its the closest to a sure thing that its fully spring.

The Veronica weed is going crazy. Flowers closed for clouds.

I hacked the hedge rose "Knockout" hard. It was getting too big, pointed out annually by my savvy wife. My yearly light pruning seemed to only encourage a larger shrub. So, boom, hard prune.

This is the most abundant weed in my garden. Its a maple seedling. I pull these out of the vegetable planters, out of the perennial beds, out from under the rose, from under the Yew trees. I do it the whole of the growing season. Probably Norway Maple -an alien forest wants back in.

To Prune or Not to Prune

I prune. Its as meditative as weeding, but more of an art. For those not interested or just prone to the wild, your roses don't need pruning. Its about us after all and they would be just fine without us (yet with more dead canes). I have three types of roses in my garden. A climber, a hedge rose, and something else I yanked out of my grandma's garden just before she sold her house. I prune them all, but each has its own program.


The climber:

I want the climber, Rosa New Dawn, to stay less than 8 feet tall, stay anchored to a trellis, and bloom as much as possible. In late March I cut out canes that interfere with this plan. I gently bend the larger canes, getting them as close to horizontal as possible without stressing it. Then I tie the cane to the trellis. I prune out perpendicular (to the trellis) canes that extend too far out because they may poke me in the eye or something. I also prune canes that are poking the wall behind the trellis. The result is a loosely espalier-like rose bush. Those horizontal canes will deliver vertical flowering branches. The more horizontal (really, diagonal) canes the climber has, the more flowers it tends to produce.

The hedge rose:

These things are meant to be rose-flowering fences. You could probably shear Rosa Knockout and do it no harm. I like to selectively prune my hedge rose for shape (I have only one). I prune out dead twigs and thin branches where I think the shrub is too dense. I also trim the sides of the shrub because I do not want it to encroach on neighboring perennials.

The ? rose (probably old garden rose, tea perhaps?):

This is one with wonderfully scented, double flowers appearing in June and again as the flowering stems are pruned. This bush has one strong cane, about 5/8-inch thick and a few smaller canes and twigs shooting off it. I prune the spindly twigs out and then cut the remaining canes down to roughly pencil thickness near outward facing leaf buds (bud eyes). Once 4 feet tall, its now less than 3 feet. This one blooms after each pruning of flowering stems during the growing season.

Rose pruning tips:

• I like to prune in late March, just as the temps are warming above freezing at night. Its a good time to do it because there are no leaves to block your view of the canes and the new leaf buds (bud eyes) are becoming swollen and visible.

• Prune out dead wood. If you suspect disease, clean your pruners with bleach before moving onto other rose bushes.

• Prune out last year's rose hips.

• Use a by-pass pruner. I use a Felco #2 and have had it for 15 years. The blade is removable and sharpenable. Keep it sharp for the cleanest cuts.

• Make your cut in one pass. If it takes more, your pruner's blade is too dull or the cane is too thick and woody. If its too thick, use a large by-pass pruner called a lopper.

• I cut the cane about 1/4 inch above the desired leaf bud, slicing parallel to the direction of the leaf bud (bud eye). See diagram below.

• My grandmother swears by sprinkling Epsom Salts around the roses in Spring. Its also known as Magnesium Sulfate. I don't treat my roses to these bath salts, but hey-she's been gardening for 70 years.

• Wear leather gloves if you don't like thorns pricking your hands.

Grandma's rose cane

Climber New Dawn cane