Pruning Hybrid teas

Rose Pruning: Hybrid Teas

First of all: The wild roses don't get pruned and they continue to grow and flower for decades. The only time they loose wood is in very harsh winters or from animals eating it. So the rose doesn't need to be pruned. In our gardens, with hybrids, we want as many blooms as possible and we want to keep them in balance. Therefore we do prune roses.

Today we start with the Hybrid Teas.

HT roses are the most easy to prune. They make long thick upright stems which end with one big beautiful flower. Always remember that the more you cut away the bigger your blooms will be but there will be less and the less you cut away the more blooms you will have but smaller. That's entirely up to your preference but as a basic rule we can say that shortening the canes with 1/3 is a minimum.

So in early spring when the chance for severe frost is over we go into the garden with our sécateurs and strong rose gloves 🧤. Make sure your sécateurs (clippers) are sharp.

Go to your Hybrid Teas and look at each rose individually. We are keeping four to five of the strongest canes so the thick juicy ones. They have lots of power so we're keeping these guys. All the other canes, so the smaller ones, the weak, the sick.. we prune away at the base. Also dead wood is removed. When you are choosing your four or five thick canes make sure you don't choose crossing canes which rubb against each other.

Now we prune our good thick canes back to half their size. If you want bigger but less blooms prune 2/3 and if you want smaller but more blooms you cut only 1/3 off.

Always make sure to

prune just above an outward facing bud eye. How much above? 1,5 cm or half an inch. If we prune too close to the bud eye we potentially can harm the bud.

So that's it!