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Dec. 10th, 2006 03:03 pmI've been pruning roses.
I know that there are gardeners who are capable of simply whacking their rosebushes down to a uniform height for the winter, covering them with mulch and calling it a day. Every winter, I try and tell myself that I will simply prune the roses hard, and this will be fast, and it will be done. I haven't managed it yet. It's easy enough on the weaker specimens, on the hybrid teas we were silly enough to try (Chihuly seduced us at a garden show, and what's left of it barely required the shears). It's the shrub roses that get me.
The shrubs are mean to pruning (particularly this one). They spread out during the spring, so that by December, I'm faced with four feet of skeletal sprawl, with most of the canes bare of eyes until two or three feet. There is only so much mulch in the world, and only so much time before sunset. I know that the long canes are prone to wind rock and frostbite and heaven knows what else in this godforsaken climate, I know that pruning encourages vigorous growth, and I still can't quite bear to cut them off.
It's been a bad year for the garden. I've been too busy to pay much attention. The daylilies are about the only things that had a decent show. I'm hoping to do better next year.
I know that there are gardeners who are capable of simply whacking their rosebushes down to a uniform height for the winter, covering them with mulch and calling it a day. Every winter, I try and tell myself that I will simply prune the roses hard, and this will be fast, and it will be done. I haven't managed it yet. It's easy enough on the weaker specimens, on the hybrid teas we were silly enough to try (Chihuly seduced us at a garden show, and what's left of it barely required the shears). It's the shrub roses that get me.
The shrubs are mean to pruning (particularly this one). They spread out during the spring, so that by December, I'm faced with four feet of skeletal sprawl, with most of the canes bare of eyes until two or three feet. There is only so much mulch in the world, and only so much time before sunset. I know that the long canes are prone to wind rock and frostbite and heaven knows what else in this godforsaken climate, I know that pruning encourages vigorous growth, and I still can't quite bear to cut them off.
It's been a bad year for the garden. I've been too busy to pay much attention. The daylilies are about the only things that had a decent show. I'm hoping to do better next year.
