Holstering Up for the Rigors of Midwinter Rose Pruning

Roses require cutting back in midwinter if they are to stay healthy and bloom their best. Garden jobs don’t ordinarily require special tools or get-ups, but then most plants aren’t as well-armed as a rose. To wade in and properly prune roses, a gardener needs a few special tools and some serious protection if you don’t want to get bloodied in the process.

In California, we prune much less than is usually suggested in books on the subject, but we still have to get rid of old canes and twiggy growth. Old canes--rose lingo for stems that sprout from the base--that have become thick, grizzled and covered with bark tend to produce only skinny sticks, not lots of big flowers. To keep rose blooms coming, we must cut off the oldest canes, which encourage and make room for the new.

To get those hard-to-reach branches and old canes, it’s necessary to step between thorny, closely spaced bushes, which is why our rose pruner--complete with chaps and holstered pruning shears--looks like a gardening gunslinger. She is outfitted in the latest gear to make pruning easier, safer and considerably less painful.

You can, of course, prune roses with less fancy gear. For instance, to protect their arms, some rose aficionados simply save old shirt sleeves to use as an extra layer and extra protection over long-sleeved shirts. And you can always put those shears in the back pocket of your jeans. But a special holster and heavy-duty canvas arm protectors are sure nice, especially if you’ve got a lot of roses to prune.

It’s possible to do some of this midwinter pruning with only an inexpensive pair of shears--plenty of people do--but that may be one reason the roses aren’t doing as well as they should. Cuts made with cheap, flimsy shears tear or shred the wood, so they heal slowly and invite disease. Sharp, sturdy tools are necessary, and to cut off the old, unproductive canes, you need more than a hand shear. You need sturdy loppers, with their longer handles, or maybe a saw, which can cleanly slice through thick, tough wood. These may be the two most important rose pruning tools.

You also need that serious protection, starting with a good pair of gloves.

Gloves. Thick leather gloves work pretty well, but if you really don’t want to get stuck or snagged by any thorns, get ironclad gloves made just for pruning thorny plants, such as these gloves coated with Nitrile, a rubbery, puncture-proof, space-age material (E-Z Chore Rose Pruning Gloves, $8).

Arm protectors. You can spot rose aficionados by the scars and scratches on their arms. Lemon pickers, who must deal with really nasty thorns, use heavy canvas arm protectors. They work equally well with roses. $6 a pair.

Chaps. Professional rose pruners in the growing fields of the Central Valley use heavy canvas chaps when wading into densely planted beds of roses. $40.

Hat. A big brim keeps the low winter sun out of your eyes and off your neck. Straw hats (this one by Headhunter, $11) are favored by gardeners.

Kneepads. Big old canes need to be cut off flush with the base of the plant. You can’t do this standing up, and kneepads (by Fiskars, $16) make kneeling a lot more comfortable.

Shear and holster. Quality shears cut cleanly and quickly with little effort. These (Corona 6200 series, $35) have blades angled to the grips so they require less movement when making a cut. Shears come in different sizes, meant to cut branches of different thicknesses. Most can cut a branch that is up to half an inch thick.

A good holster for shears is really handy. This leather job ($17) also holds a separately available tool for adjusting shears, a file for sharpening and a small bottle of lubricating, cleaning and protecting oil (called Break Free CLP, $2).

Belt and tape dispenser. A special belt ($18) for the shear holster can also hold a leather dispenser ($22) for green gardening tape, to use when you’re tying up those climbing roses. Strap both on and you’ll be ready should some really ornery rose--like the house-gobbling ‘Mermaid’--call you out!

Lopper. Shears have their limits. For canes more than a half-inch thick up to 1-inch thick, use long-handled loppers, which won’t crush the stem and tear the bark, which slows or even stops the healing process. Since they’ll fit in tight, thorny spots, small loppers like these with 14-inch handles (Corona AL 8000 20-inch StrataShear, $52) are especially useful. High-tech features speed pruning, such as aluminum handles and special coatings on the blades to reduce cutting force. Comfortable grips and special bumpers reduce fatigue.

Saw. For cuts more than 1 inch thick or in really tight quarters where there isn’t even room for a small lopper--near the base of the rose or where canes touch--use a saw with a narrow blade. A common keyhole saw is one kind, but there are also some cutting-edge blades out there, such as the new triple-edge narrow Japanese blades that cut shockingly fast and clean (ARS folding bonsai saw, $22).

A tank sprayer. After pruning, be sure to spray roses with a safe yet effective combination of dormant oil and fungicide (such as fixed copper), which will kill bugs and diseases that are hiding on the plant, awaiting spring. Tank sprayers are the most precise and do not get spray solution everywhere like hose-end devices do.

This new kind of sprayer (Hudson Pumpless, $44) uses the garden hose to pressurize the tank, though there is also an efficient hand pump that requires fewer strokes than normal. The spray wand easily swivels so you can spray up, under leaves, where most bugs and diseases dwell.

* All of this garden gear came from Denman & Co., 401 W. Chapman Ave., Orange, (714) 639-8106. Denman has a retail store and a mail-order operation. Although the company specializes in high-quality tools and those that are unusual and hard to find, some of the tools pictured can be found at regular nurseries as well.

* In the Garden is published Thursdays. Write to Robert Smaus, SoCal Living, Los Angeles Times, Times Mirror Square, Los Angeles, CA 90053; fax to (213) 237-4712; or e-mail robert.smaus@latimes.com.

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Rose Pruning Tips

Rose pruning began back in December near the coast, but inland gardeners prefer to wait until after Jan. 15, since tradition has it that waiting until then usually avoids late frosts that might nip new growth.

Remove all dead, damaged or diseased branches from the rosebushes and any branch that is thinner than a pencil. Try to shrink the size of the bush by cutting off about a third of the growth. On roses that are a few years old, remove closely spaced or crossing canes so the bush does not become too dense, or a tangled mess. Dense, messy plants are an invitation to rose disease, and it is harder to spray for rose pests if too many branches and leaves are in the way.

Even though roses are supposedly dormant at this time of year, many still cling to their leaves. Avid gardeners usually strip off all remaining leaves while they are pruning, sending them to the dump. Getting rid of old, often diseased leaves gives roses a fresh start in spring.

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Styptic for Roses

Pruning cuts don’t have to be sealed, but many gardeners prefer to cover cuts that are a half-inch or larger in diameter. The time-tested way is to coat them with plain white glue, but the Nubark Rose Stick is a new alternative. This natural, waxy balm keeps cuts from drying and cracking and prevents insects like rose stem borers from entering through the cut. It’s colored green to disguise the cut.

The waxy material should be spread about one-eighth of an inch thick. It is easier to spread with a finger if it is allowed to warm in the sun. Large tubs are available for those with big rose gardens, but if you only have a couple of bushes, the stick might do; cost is about $5.