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National Rose Pruning Day
Feb. 19th, 2007 12:43 pmWhen Denys saw me pruning the roses out front on Saturday, he said, "Hey, Eric the baker down at ETG just said this morning that President's Day is the day to prune roses!"
I hadn't intended to prune the roses. My goal had actually been to cut down the dead stalks of the daisies and asters, which were beginning to look corpselike to me, but then I started on the roses, because they looked a bit raggedy too. I'm still pretty ignorant (not to mention resentful) when it comes to taking care of roses, and the timing of the pruning is one of those things I've always wondered about. Eric has given me a useful mnemonic! So today, which is the President's Day holiday for me, I inaugurated the use of this new knowledge by pruning the roses in the back. Now that I know when to prune them, I just need to figure out how to prune them properly, but that can wait until next year. This year I just cut the crap out of them and hoped for the best. Of course, whenever I see black spots on the rose leaves, I think that the best would be for them to just die. This is gardening as warfare. Death to roses! To the pruning shears, lads!
I hadn't intended to prune the roses. My goal had actually been to cut down the dead stalks of the daisies and asters, which were beginning to look corpselike to me, but then I started on the roses, because they looked a bit raggedy too. I'm still pretty ignorant (not to mention resentful) when it comes to taking care of roses, and the timing of the pruning is one of those things I've always wondered about. Eric has given me a useful mnemonic! So today, which is the President's Day holiday for me, I inaugurated the use of this new knowledge by pruning the roses in the back. Now that I know when to prune them, I just need to figure out how to prune them properly, but that can wait until next year. This year I just cut the crap out of them and hoped for the best. Of course, whenever I see black spots on the rose leaves, I think that the best would be for them to just die. This is gardening as warfare. Death to roses! To the pruning shears, lads!
