Today I pruned my rose bushes. I mentioned in my New Year Roses post that it is hard to prune your roses when they still have blooms on them.

Before I started I took a few pictures, including this one of a nice bloom on my St. Patrick hybrid tea rose bush.

Here is another view of the roses from before I started. If you look back at my post from last winter you will see that they look about the same, but with a few more blooms remaining.

Here you see my large yellow floribunda rosebush with my pink rose bush peeking out from behind. Both still have blooms on them.

I then got out my tools and got started with the pruning. I remember the first year that I had my rose bushes when all I needed was a pair of garden cutters. Now I have to use a pair of long handled garden shears and a small saw as well.

I started out by just cutting out the bulk of the growth and then went back and cleaned up all the smaller growth and cut out dead or misdirected canes.

When I was finished I turned the sprinklers on to make sure that my grass stays green. We have not had much rain this season, and the ground is starting to dry out.

I still have a bit more pruning to do, but I want to take a break and think about how I want the bushes to be shaped this year. I still need to cut them back a bit more, and make sure that all the dead wood is cut out.

Contrast this last picture with the first one in the post. You can now see down the entire line of roses.

The front of the house looks much different now, but soon the rose bushes will have leaves and in a couple months they will be blooming again.

Steven