Fall Rose Pruning in Houston

Maintaining your rose garden may not be a fun task, but fall pruning can and will give your roses a nice boost to prep them for their next fall flush(es). So when and how we prune roses this fall in our Houston climate? I've put together a few resources that I use plus my personal experience.

Fall pruning is not a must, unlike spring pruning so if you don't have the time or mosquitoes are camping out waiting to suck the life out of you in your garden like mine, you don't have to and just wait until spring.

Before we grab our pruner and start your pruning party, let me talk about new roses that you purchased earlier this year. Based on my personal experience, you can even skip fall pruning altogether (but you'll want to remove dead and diseased canes of course, leaving them there won't do any good so go ahead and remove).

Why did I say this? Roses that are less than one year old typically don't put on a lot of growth in their 1st year anyway so their stems take longer to grow. I'd leave them to do their thing and continue to grow and develop their stems.

Also with climbers, they're supposed to grow long stems. Let them grow those main canes in order to support lateral canes.

So if your roses are over one year old, I think it's safe to give it a go to do a fall pruning.

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When to prune?

According Texas AgriLife Extension Service, Texas A&M, Labor Day is a good time to do the fall "grooming." If you're a bit late like me, you still have time to groom them this week/weekend.

The fall pruning is lighter than in the spring and consists of removing twiggy and unproductive growth along with any crossing or dead canes. All foliage is left on the bush at this time.

I highly, highly recommend this article by Texas A&M that talks about Spring pruning, Summer care, and Fall pruning (plus tell you how to prune/groom each variety) https://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/archives/parsons/publications/roses/prune.html

For those who is better off with something more visual in a video format, Backyard Paradise had two videos that she kindly shared how she did her fall pruning. Although she isn't located in Houston (she's in Alabama), they are very helpful.

Fall pruning - Shrub roses

https://youtu.be/wfucJw7Z92U

Fall pruning - Climbing roses

https://youtu.be/PQepw6v6xI4

Happy Pruning and wishing all a very abundant fall flush

Tat of Roses in Houston