Consulting Rosarian Report
January 2026
By Royal Krieger, Morcom’s Rosarian
It’s January, time for Bay Area winter pruning. Prior to pruning I do the following:
1) I inventory, usually in November, the various tools I will be using. For winter pruning I get my various pruners professionally sharpened for a sharper edge than I can do myself.
2) When pruning I wear a wide brimmed hat, a must to help protect ears, eyes, cheeks plus better sun protection. When working on roses, especially climbers and larger roses, recommend protecting eyes with goggles and long sleeve leather gloves. I also tend to wear tighter fitting clothing, less chance for clothing snags.
3) With winter rains I check my garden for accumulated water. A healthy rose soil should have approximately 25% air. If water does not drain in a reasonable period of time roses risk dying from lack of air in soil.
When I start to prune, whether my own or another’s roses, I do not just start pruning the first rose I come to. Instead I stand well back and view the entire garden or a large section I’ll be pruning. I want to see the relationship of the roses to each other, their health and overall care. I then decide which two or three roses to prune. I want to prune these roses taking into consideration their relationship to each other. In pruning the gardens of others I often find some roses planted too close together. As such, I decide which rose or roses are the dominant ones. I’ll then prune to either maintain that relationship or prune to bring the less dominant one(s) more exposure.
When pruning and rose shaping I think of a family photograph. In a family picture usually the tallest members are in back with shorter ones in front so all can be better seen. I also apply this concept to my planting of roses. I try to prune the roses planted in back higher than those in front. By using this method I hope to get more bloom exposure. As I prune I’m continually stepping back, not a foot or two but four-six feet, thereby getting a better perspective of both the rose I’m pruning and its relationship to companion roses.
Pruning larger roses such as climbers takes a somewhat different approach. Again, I step well back to study both growth formation and structure. I then start removing weak and dead canes, much as I do with all roses. This should “open up” the climber for better access and allow me to determine which major canes I wish to keep. I then start pruning one side of the climber for a bit before I do the same to the other side. I do not complete one side before working on the other…a recipe for poor results. As I prune I focus on canes growing off the laterals and what they will look like when blooming three-four months from now. I usually prune these vertical growing branches off the lateral canes down to their first to third bud node. As I do this I determine if I’m leaving too many vertical branches which may create excess density, or not enough. From my study of the climber before pruning, the plant generally gives me an idea of how it will perform after pruning.
There are several climber and climber like classes of roses, some with very different growth patterns. For example, ‘Dorothy Perkins’, Hybrid Wichurana class and ‘Phyllis Bide’, Climbing Polyanthia are similar is structure for pruning whereas ‘Sally Holmes, Shurb, ‘Blush Noisette, Noisette or ‘Buff Beauty’, Hybrid Musk require a somewhat different approach.
Roses are quite forgiving so if I make a pruning mistake the plant will usually recover with a lesson learned. I recommend experimenting when pruning. Doing so over the years I’ve discovered ways to improve my techniques plus get better performance and display.
My final winter pruning task is removing all leaves from plants followed by a thorough raking of debris from beds. This is important in minimizing disease. Once this is done I spray my roses and beds with a horticultural oil. Important this is done before the roses start to leaf out. I’ve found the easiest way to spray is to buy a premix with a hose attachment so I can attach to my garden hose and get the spraying done in a few minutes.