April is the month in which most rosarians will have “opened” their rose gardens in preparation for the new rose season.  (Oh, I just can’t wait!) 

Last month we discussed planting new roses, but planting time for roses is also “garden opening” time for the established roses.  All of the “first of your spring rose chores” should take place in this small window of time when the forsythia blooms in your neighborhood.  For many cold-climate rosarians, that’s mid-April or so.

After getting your new plants into the ground, garden opening consists of cleaning the debris out of the beds, removing the winter protection materials from the established plants, pruning them, and beginning your regular fertilizing and spray regimens.

It’s easier to work and healthier for the plants if you clean the debris out of your rose beds before you do anything else.  Fallen leaves can carry fungal spores that may infect new growth with the dreaded blackspot and powdery mildew diseases.  Get them out of the garden fast!  And pull out any weeds that may already have started to grow.

If you mounded your roses with soil last fall, gently remove the soil from around the plant, being careful not to knock off any new shoots that may be starting from the bottom of the old canes or from the bud union.  You can use the winter protection soil to topdress the bed, or you can move it to another place in the yard.

Using a very sharp pruner, so as not to shred the bark and invite rose diseases, prune off all the dead wood.  Prune back to where the canes are green, and the pith of the cane is white.  If it was a cold, windy winter, chances are that the part of each cane that was above the soil mound will be dead, and only the lower part of the cane— the part protected by the soil mound— will be green and healthy.

If the canes have died back below the soil mounds, don’t worry!  Just prune back to green wood.  The remainder of each cane might be very short, but if there’s any green at all, the plant is alive and will grow strongly.

If you had a mild winter, and the canes are green to the top, or almost to the top, you’ll still want to prune quite low, so this season’s new canes will be fat and strong and able to support a big flower or cluster of flowers at the top.

In my Massachusetts garden, I almost always have to prune my roses right to the ground in the spring.  But they’re healthy, happy plants, and in a couple of weeks, the soil at the base of each plant is fairly bristling with new canes poking up to see the sun.  Low pruning never hurts, and always helps, a modern rosebush!

On climbing roses, remove the dead wood, but leave the green canes long.  Remove any of last year’s leaves that may be remaining on the plants to make way for this season’s new ones.

Once the pruning is done, spray all the plants with your regular mix of a good fungicide, a good insecticide, and a good miticide.  The products you choose will depend on the number of plants you have, and needless to say, the most effective spray materials are the most expensive ones.  But the dose is much, much smaller, so even though they’re expensive to buy, they end up being a whole lot cheaper to use than garden center products.  Check the Primary Products website at www.primaryproducts.com to select the very best spray materials, or drop me an e-mail and I’ll be happy to recommend products that will keep you happy and your roses healthy!

Remember that roses like lots of fertilizer because they grow and bloom all season long.  Use a fertilizer or a fertilizer regimen that’s designed specifically for roses and contains all of the macro- and micro-nutrients that roses need.  Begin feeding established roses as soon as you prune, but hold off for a month on newly planted roses.  Use organic fertilizers, such as fish emulsion, liquid seaweed, etc. to keep the soil active, but use chemical fertilizers to feed the plants.  The combination of both will yield amazing results!