On Fri, 07 May 2004 23:20:21 -0700, Radika
wrote:

Chuck wrote:
I've been told different things for pruning off the old dead flowers. Where
is the correct place to prune them off?

I don't know what everyone else might consider 'correct,' but my
preferred way of deadheading a rose is snapping off the bloom at the
abscission layer (where the stem is swollen just beneath the peduncle of
the flower). This was taught to me by Mel Hulse, the Director of San
Jose Heritage Rose Garden as a method prone to encourage more new
flowering shoots than the old method of cutting back to the first
five-leaflet leaf as standard practice dictates. I was told that this is
a procedure that was found to produce greater flower production by
England's Royal Horticultural Society. Here is a reference:
http://www.findarticles.com/cf_dls/m.../article.jhtml
The relevant passage is under 'Rose Tips' on the bottom of the first page.

The exception to this in my opinion, as I'm now finding out in my 3rd
full season (so keep in mind that I'm a novice) is that for many
hybrid teas, you *need* to take some of the stems back a bit, because
you'll lose any decent shape to the plant and they can tend to
legginess. My Mr. Lincoln is in need of some serious cane pruning
right now.

I'm guessing that this way of deadheading works well for bushy type
plants like Baby Love (it's the method that I use on it - then at the
end of the season, I trim it like I would a hedge). I'm also using it
on climbers like Sombreuil and Old Blush. On my Aloha, I definitely
take some stem with the blooms (because I use them a lot in
arrangements that I take to work), although I'm not happy with my eye
in terms of how to take them. When I bought my house, the bush was
very round and well-shaped, not it's not so much. I think I need an
expert to come in and do my winter pruning this year.

And I wonder what this site means by "straight across" he

"The Royal National Rose Society growers recommend cutting hybrid teas
and floribunda shoots straight across with shears or a hedge trimmer.
They believe this promotes more and stronger growth and possibly
better flowering than traditional pruning and thinning techniques".

I assume that this means just taking hedge clippers to shape the
plant, not "lop it off in a straight line", right?