Question
QUESTION: Hi, I ordered seven bare root rose bushes about 2 years ago.  The first year they looked beautiful and had great blooms, but then I pruned them.  I had a rose book which I relied on singularly (I should have looked at other sources!) that said to prune them down very very low, about 5 inches off the ground, in late November-December.  I did that, maybe not as much, but still pretty low and covered them with hay to protect them for the winter.  When I uncovered them, around March I believe, it seemed that some of their canes had died, and then they took a long time to start growing again.  When they did, many of their shoots were pretty thin, much thinner than they were the year before.  I didn't get too many rose buds this year, and they definitely took a long time to spring up at all.  Did I do something wrong?  Should I prune them at all this year?  I live in VA in zone 7, and the roses are planted in full sun.  Thank you!!

ANSWER: Since roses have become a large commercial product, commercial growers have debunked many rose myths. However the rose books have not kept up with the new rose wisdom and so keep repeating ways to grow roses that have been proven of little value. One of these rose myths is pruning roses way back. A rose is a living plant and needs all it's canes and leaves to be strong. There really is no reason to cut a rose down low for the winter. If a winter is very cold and the tops of the rose canes die back, a rose needs to have that extra length. Cutting a rose way back means that it has to start all over again in the spring and put on new canes plus new leaves. Rose bushes need leaves to manufacture food for the flowers and the canes take up the nutrients to the leaves. Cutting them way back means the rose have to expend most of it's energy growing back to where it can produce flowers.
I am sorry you had to do this as it simply makes for a weak rose and that is why the roses didn't have enough strength to go through the winter. This fall only cut your roses down to about 18 inches just cut right across the top of the bush. Make a mound of soil from another part of the garden, all around the base until it is about 8 inches high. That is all you have to do for the winter. Next spring cut off any parts of the canes that have died but no more and you will have a healthy rose which will produce lots of flowers for you.

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QUESTION: Thank you!  I am sorry I listened to that book.  Hopefully next year the roses will have revived themselves and will look as beautiful as they did the first year.  Is the excessive pruning the cause of some of the canes being really thin and will they ever grow any thicker?  Also, is there a way to help the bush produce new cane growth?  I read somewhere that if you scrape the part where the shoots come out (forget what that's called) that it might stimulate new growth.  I know a healthy rose is supposed to have at least three major canes and some of mine only have two.  Thanks again!

Answer
Your roses are still struggling to get back on their feet and because they were cut way back they don't have the strength to produce thicker canes. There is a way to encourage a rose to push out better canes but it has to be done in the spring as that will give them time to get up and going. Now is too late as you don't want to make the rose put out new canes which could be killed in the winter cold. Try and view your roses as weak and give them another year to come back to their normal strength. Any harsh treatment, which a healthy rose could tolerate, might just finish them off completely. Next year place a mulch of any kind all around the base of the rose as roses love, and grow better with cool roots and the mulch will give them a cooler soil. Many rose growers say that alfalfa meal, sprinkled around the base, is a good root stimulate. I have had good success with it on my roses.