About Basic Care

Whack 'em Back!

by Phil Ash

HOW MANY TIMES have you had to whack back some plant or shrub that was growing in your yard where you didn't want it? Most of us have, and didn't give it a second's thought. We just went out and whacked it. Why, then, does the thought of whacking back a rose bush create such a mental mountain to climb? Because we don't whack roses, we prune them, and pruning is scary, difficult to learn, and totally worrisome.

From the first rose you cut in the spring to the last rose in the fall, you are pruning and shaping your plant with each and every cut. I'll bet you don't really get up tight about that kind of pruning, do you? So the pruning that worries you is the kind in late December or January when you go out and do them all in and have all those rules to follow. That's really the easy kind of whacking back, or pruning, because the rose bush is going to help cover up any mistakes (and there really aren't many) you make. Roses are very forgiving plants, which makes them such a pleasure to work with.

Let's start with why we whack back or prune? Mother Nature has decreed that San Diego's climate will be mild and pleasant most of the time. Elsewhere in the rose-growing world there are ice, snow and brutal freezing temperatures, which cause most roses to shut down, go hide, be dormant and not grow. Our roses don't go dormant naturally, at least along the coast; they just keep growing year around. But they do slow down a bit in the cooler December and January climate. They need to slow down to get as close to dormant as possible, given our climate. This will then be their resting and restorative phase. We help, by cutting them back, taking the leaves off, cutting awkward, gawky, or too-old canes back, cleaning up the area around the bush, and then sanitizing the garden area so they get a fresh start.

What happens if you don't whack them back? Let's say you don't feel good, you just got out of the hospital, you're too busy, you're all tired out, or whatever reason you want to offer, what happens? First, as long as the rose-pruning police don't find you, nothing will happen. Most importantly, your roses will continue growing, the old leaves will fall off, and eventually your rose will put forth blooms again in the spring. But, and isn't there always one of those, your rose will not be the happy camper that it could be. It would really like to have a resting period, a root building and developing time, and a chance to get a new fresh start for the year, for the millennium if you will!

When you whack, you cut something back; cut part of it off, and leave the remainder. I'll bet what you are really looking for is some simple guidelines, so here they are.

1. Dark brown, yellowy brown, branchy things that snap off readily are probably dead. Go for them first and cut them out. Get all the deadcolor stuff out of there. Take out a few of the old tired canes, too.

2. You want the breezes to blow through your bush so that all the evil spores and bugs blow right through without stopping. So the stuff in the center of the bush that crosses over back and forth goes next. Open up the inside by cutting that stuff out. You want to wind up with a plant that is urn-shaped with canes coming out all around an open center.

3. How long should the canes be? You want a rule? Cut a third or a half off and be done with it. But you don't want a simple rule, you want to understand why, don't you? When you whack a cane back, you are going to cut just above a budeye. Budeyes, and usually the top one, are where new growth comes from. There is a bud eye at every leaf axil, just above where the leaf is joined to the cane. The eye and the leaf are pointing in the direction the new growth will go. So cut above a budeye that is pointing outward. The new growth that starts at that budeye and the new cane can never be thicker than that cut. If you want skinny stems on your rose, cut at skinny stem budeyes. If you want nice thick canes, cut at a nice thick, outward-facing budeye. You can compromise and cut where the stem will be at least yellow lead pencil thickness. Look for an outward facing budeye with the thickness that will support the kind of rose you want to grow. That's how long the cane should be.

4. With each cut you make, you are wounding the plant and it might ooze sap or something. You don't want that covering the budeye you want to start growing, so cut at an angle down and away from the budeye just in case it oozes. That's where the cut at a 45 degree angle rule comes from. If you look at other canes where you have cut them in the past and see a small hole in the end of the cane, some insect borer has been at work. Take a small bottle of Elmer's glue and put some on your finger tip and swipe it over the fresh cut. When the glue dries the borers will be excluded.

5. Do you whack back the same way for all types of roses, hybrid teas, floribundas, old garden roses, Austin's, etc? Sure, why not? It Won't kill any of them, and you can get them all started by doing just that. As you get smarter about whacking, you are going to recognize that there are some differences. To get good stem thickness, you might have to cut an HT further back than you would a shrub or floribunda. Some old garden roses don't like to be cut at all, despite which they'll survive your brutality. But all that can come later. You are whacking back to stimulate new growth, in the direction you want it to go, and opening up the plant. One exception: please don't treat climbing roses this way; they need a different kind of treatment. Save the real long canes going in either direction; any growth off those long canes cut to 8-12 inch stubs.

6. Then strip off all leaves and clean up the area around the plant. You want to get rid of as much of this past year's pests and pestilence as possible. Then spray what's left of the plant and ground around it with a dormant spray. There are all kinds of recipes. I use Ortho lime-sulfur mixed with Ortho Volck Oil. Whatever you do, read the labels and follow their instructions. More is not better! Protecting yourself with mask, rubber gloves, long sleeves, etc., is very fashionable (and safer!), even if the neighbors look at you in terror! The lime sulfur is to knock off the fungal pestilence and the oil is to finish off the bugs. Get all your pruning done at once and spray all at once if you can. Spray again a week later. Then your plants can get a good clean start for their new growth cycle.

So go out and whack 'em back, start 'em up, and get 'em growing!

This article was originally published in Rose Ramblings, Vol. LXXIII No. 1, January. © 2000 San Diego Rose Society, Inc.

Keywords: Pruning, Basic