How to deadhead roses properly seems to generate as much controversy as pruning these beloved plants. But when it comes to removing the old blooms from your roses, I say find the method that gives you the results you’re looking for and stick with it. If someone tells you, “You’re doing it all wrong,” don’t believe them if you’re getting the look you want! After all, my own grandmothers and mother showed me different ways to deadhead, and each seemed pleased with how their roses bloomed.
This hybrid tea is in need of some deadheading.
Photo Credit: Stan V. Griep
Snapping off the spent flower might leave your rosebush with too small of a cane to fully support a new, big bloom.
Photo Credit: Stan V. Griep
These blooms were deadheaded back to the first 5-leaf junction, and I sealed the cut ends with glue to dissuade cane borers.
Photo Credit: Stan V. Griep
Deadheading rewards you with more beautiful blooms!
Photo Credit: Stan V. Griep
For my mother, deadheading was as much about shaping the rosebush as it was about removing spent blooms. Before she ever took pruners to plant, she’d thoughtfully consider how and where the new growth would come in – and Mom would always deadhead to at least the first 5-leaf-to-cane junction.
Grandmother Mary May had a different approach: She’d walk around her rose gardens at deadheading time and take a particular spent bloom in her hand. With a quick motion she’d “snap” the spent bloom right off. She wasn’t concerned with shaping her rosebush – in fact, her method of deadheading would leave a bare stick of a stem sticking up a bit above the foliage. But my grandmother believed she got repeat blooms faster using her method, so she stuck with it.
Grandmother Molly always pruned off her spent blooms down to a healthy looking leaf set junction with the cane. The pruning point could be at a 3-leaf junction – as long as the cane looked sturdy and healthy. While she didn’t really concern herself with the overall shape of the rosebush, her method always left the whole plant looking better to me (probably because it didn’t leave the remaining stems sticking up all over the bush).
And there you have it: Three different deadheading methods and three pleased rose growers. I honestly can’t remember there being any big difference in the amount of repeat blooms with any of these techniques. However, I do remember my Grandmother Mary May complaining that a new, big bloom would sometimes “flop over” – its stem was sometimes too weak to support the new flower.
While I’ve both heard and read that deadheading to the first 5-leaf junction when pruning hybrid tea roses is a “myth,” I’ve observed firsthand the problems that can come about by not doing so – especially with larger blooms. Many of the big flowers on Grandmother Mary May’s roses would droop or nod. (Personally, I’ve deadheaded back to a second 5-leaf junction just because the cane looked too small in diameter to support a new, big bloom.)
Deadheading to the first 5- (or more) leaf junction where the cane diameter is approximately that of a pencil seems to be a good rule of thumb. But don’t bother getting out the measuring stick – just cut back to where the cane looks sturdy enough to support large flowers. If the spent bloom you’re cutting off was a nice big one that didn’t sag or droop, then that same diameter of cane should be sufficient to support any new growth and bloom. If the flower drooped, however, cut the cane back to a sturdier diameter.
When it comes to floribunda and grandiflora roses, I learned to prune back to a sturdy-looking leaf set to cane junction. The 5-leaf rule doesn’t apply with these wonderful rosebushes, and it doesn’t apply to my miniature or shrub rosebushes, either. But you still have to keep an eye on where the new growth will come in. In other words, deadhead to a junction where the new growth will go in the proper direction for the particular look you want.
That means you need to step back and take a good look at your rosebush before doing any deadheading. Keep in mind the plant’s “balance.” When a rosebush has a tight center portion, it’s best to deadhead the plant down to a point where the new growth will go out and away from that tight center growth. If the center of the bush looks too open, however, deadhead the bush at locations where any new growth will grow more into the center. I like a full look to my rosebushes, so I deadhead to a point where the new growth will come mainly to the center (but I always aim for some outer growth for that balance, too).
Once you’re done deadheading, seal the ends of all the freshly pruned canes with waterproof white glue. This helps to keep any cane borers or cane-boring wasps from entering into the tender, fresh center pith. (Cane borers can kill a portion of the cane they’ve bored into – and in some extreme cases, they can kill an entire rosebush.) The final touch in my deadheading process is watering each rose well and gently rinsing down all the foliage. The rosebushes seem to respond nicely to this “spa” treatment.
So go ahead and experiment with each of these deadheading techniques to find out which one works best for you – and enjoy tending your roses! They’ll relish the time you spend with them and reward you in full measure.
