Its not too late to prune your roses, but it might be too early – Las Cruces Sun-News

Marisa Thompson, Southwest Yard and Garden Published 6:19 a.m. MT March 8, 2020

Many roses are impressively drought- and heat-tolerant. A thick mulch layer and regular watering to a depth of 18 to 24 inches are great steps toward healthier, showier rose bushes.(Photo: Marissa Thompson)

Question: Is it too late to prune my roses?

Pat J., Artesia

Answer: No, its not too late. Theres more harm in pruning roses too early than too late. Thats because pruning stimulates a flush of new growth, which is wonderful as long as youre past the risk of more hard freezes in your area. That new green growth is especially prone to frost damage, and damaged branches would then need to be pruned back again. The optimal window for most rose pruning is two to fourweeks before your expected last frost. Even when pruned at this time, an abnormal late freeze can do considerable damage to your rose plants, but it is much less likely.

According to https://www.plantmaps.com/, the average last frost in Las Cruces is early April, in Artesia and Roswell its mid-April, Los Lunas and Albuquerque early May, and Taos early June. Many successful gardeners do holiday pruning, meaning in Las Cruces they might prune their roses around Valentines Day, St. Patricks Day in Albuquerque, and Tax Day in Taos.

Marisa Y. Thompson(Photo: Courtesy)

I see two drawbacks to waiting until your areas expected last frost date to prune your roses:

Many roses are impressively drought- and heat-tolerant. There are also flowering shrubs in the Rosaceae family that are native to New Mexico and are great options for low-water landscaping. Native or not, now is a great time to add a mulch (like woodchips, leaf litter, pine needles, etc.) under your bushes and around trees, and as a moisture-holding layer on the tops of your veggie beds.

I subscribe to a new newsletter from Divine Earth, a commercial pruning and landscape company in Albuquerque (https://divineearthnm.com/), and I was delighted to get their quick and clever tips on rose pruning:

I love that three out of their four rose pruning tips are about growing roses more sustainably. Any time is a great time to remove artificial weed barriers in ornamental landscapes. The trouble with them is that theyre either too flimsy to keep weeds from popping through, or they do a great job keeping weeds under control, but at the expense of keeping water and air from moving down into the soil. That means the soil and ornamental plant roots in those areas are sure to suffer. And, after time, soil that blows in on top of that barrier can harbor weed seeds that grow just fine on top of the fabric or plastic. Landscape designers and installers across the region are officially giving up on weed barriers in urban landscapes.

Its also always a great time to pull back landscape rock from around the base of roses and other ornamental plants and replace it with a nice, thick top layer of woody, fibrous mulch. If you compost your kitchen and garden scraps, you can sprinkle a layer of that on top with your mulch. Check out NMSU Extension Guides H-110, Backyard Compostingand H-164, Vermicomposting,for helpful info for beginner composters.

Water your established roses to a depth of 18 to 24 inches about once every two to four weeks in spring, depending on your soil type and environmental conditions like wind and temperature. When temperatures get higher, its recommended that we water our roses and other shrubs every one to three weeks from May through October. For newly planted roses, water will be needed more frequently and always to the same depth.

Special pruning note for climbing roses: wait until after bloom to prune. Thats because climbing roses bloom on one- and two-year-old wood, so if you prune before bloom youll be cutting away the current seasons flowers. Other roses bloom on new branches that develop in spring.

Roses can be pruned back harder than most people think, so dont be shy. If youre worried, try your own mini trial at home by pruning some branches lightly, pruning some branches back severely, and leaving some alone. Take photos before pruning, after pruning, and throughout the season and share them with me on social media: @NMDesertBlooms. NMSU Extension Guide H-165, Growing Roses,has lots more information about rose types and their care.

The Albuquerque Rose Society offers free pruning demos each year, and several are still coming up this season: March 14, 15, 21, and 22 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. (http://www.albuquerquerose.com/). Ill attend one of these sessions and post video to the blog version of this column next week (https://nmsudesertblooms.blogspot.com/).

For more gardening information, including decades of archived Southwest Yard & Garden columns, visit the NMSU Extension Horticulture page (http://desertblooms.nmsu.edu/), follow us on social media (@NMDesertBlooms), or contact your County Extension office (https://aces.nmsu.edu/county).

Marisa Thompson, PhD, is the Extension Horticulture Specialist for New Mexico State University and is based at the Agricultural Science Center at Los Lunas.

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Its not too late to prune your roses, but it might be too early - Las Cruces Sun-News