Taking a Cut at the Fine Art of Rose Pruning : Flowers: Effects of professional pruning can be seen at the Huntington. But water, fertilizer and sun have more to do with achieving results.

Rose pruning requires no magic spells or special incantations; it is not, as some seem to think, most akin to voodoo. It is not even that important. Plenty of water and fertilizer and lots of sun have more to do with the health and vigor of a rose.

But pruning does tend to keep a plant shapely, in bounds and flowering. “You really can’t hurt them,” say Clair Martin who oversees the Huntington Botanical Gardens’ 2,000 or so roses.

A walk around the Huntington’s rose garden at this time of the year, when the roses are all pruned and tidied up, is illuminating. You can’t help but notice, with the roses bare of leaves, that they are spaced reasonably far apart so they are not crowded. At least 3 to 4 feet separate each. Having enough room and no competition makes sure that each rose gets its share of water, fertilizer and light.

And, it is easy at this time of the year to see how they were pruned. All of the branches are evenly spaced on the plant. About 3 to 4 inches separate the closest. These plants have not been cut back drastically. Though much material has been removed, plenty of small branches remain so there will be lots of leaves early on and as a direct result, lots of flowers.

Says Martin: “The English method of pruning that is so widely copied in this country (where plants are cut back to a few thick canes) forces the plant to start all over again each year. You get bigger flowers but fewer of them. All the plant’s efforts go into growing, not flowering, and at the Huntington we most want flowers, lots of them.”

Watch Martin prune a rose and you see that he begins at the front, because he wants to shape the rose so it is lower in front and higher in back, giving it a slightly rounded shape that will show off the flowers.

The first branches to go are any that make getting between the rose bushes difficult or downright dangerous. He then removes lots of the twiggy inner growth and twiggy branches low on the plant because “I don’t think these do much for the rose.” By the time he finishes, most branches are “larger than the diameter of a pencil,” an old rule-of-thumb.

Next he looks for old canes that don’t have strong new growth coming from them and branches that are rubbing or crossing, and removes these. Most often there are no old canes that must be removed, but there are plenty of “crossovers.”

Where a number of branches are growing from the same place on a cane, he tends to leave just one or two that are facing out from the plant, or up. He also tries to leave several “eyes” or buds on each branch so there are plenty of opportunities for new growth.

Most of his cuts are made just above a bud or eye, which tends to direct the new growth up, instead of out. “People often leave too long a stub above the bud,” and he adds that you have to hold the pruning shears just the right way so the blade cuts close.

The shears used should be very sharp and cut clean. To make sure, Martin keeps a whetstone in his pocket. A few passes of the stone over the beveled side of the blade (he never hones the flat side) does the trick. Good shears also help. He uses a pair of Swiss-made Felcos. He often steps back to see how the plant is shaping up.

“I look for the branches to be evenly spaced around the bush and try to direct new growth to fill voids,” he says. Directing growth is simply a matter of making cuts just above buds that face in the direction you want growth to go.

Finally, all the leaves are pulled off, or if they resist, cut off.

All of the roses are pruned pretty much the same at the Huntington (except the climbers). On hybrid teas, he tries to open up the center of the plant a little, and floribundas are left a little bushier, but even the new Austin roses and the old roses are pruned in a similar fashion, though some are naturally pruned much higher than others because they are bigger plants.

When all is said and done, however, you need something to prune. At the Huntington, there are lots of canes and branches to select from, and that is a result of fertilizer and water and a good soil, not pruning.