Today I present you the pruning of a rose bush that made me between sorrow and the illusion of pruning. It is a rose bush in the house of one of my neighbors, who unfortunately left this world last August 2022. As you know, I’ve always liked roses and all flowers in general, so while he was in the hospital, I took over the maintenance of his garden. Quite simply, what he could do was irrigate the plants and make sure they continued to live for when he returned. On two occasions I kept the garden alive, but the time third time that he was at the hospital, he did not return. It was a very hard blow to me and to my family and part of our neighbors. Because of the unrest that caused me to enter that house mostly because of the memories I had, I stopped keeping the garden and that was synonymous with everything getting out of control, especially because of weeds. Since it was very hard for me to see everything uncontrolled because he was very fond of plants in general, I asked his brother’s permission to fix all the plants and remove all the weeds because I couldn’t afford to see everything as it was. He gave me permission, and automatically I started the cleanup afterwards. There were some small rose trees that were too close together and with that and the herbs that grew up didn’t develop as they should, so I first set out to take out the weeds, then I took out one of the roses that was most harmed (I transplanted it into a smaller test and now it’s in my home) and finally pruned the remaining ones, which were four and were small. These were not a problem, because there was not much work due to their small size, which gave me problems, it was the largest of all, a rose bush that is many years old and a size of about two and a half meters tall. From the door of my house, I could see yellow roses at the top of the rose bush. So that I could lay this one, I first asked permission and showed the point I saw in the dead man’s niece, who’s going to live in this house. Then I show you a picture of what I saw and that’s what made me decide.
As you can see, the rose at some moment started to grow on the other side of the fence and nothing was done in its day to solve it and prevent this problem from going any further. This branch was already beginning to have a certain danger, both for this branch and for the entire rose bush. If you look more carefully, you will see that I was starting to develop around the piece of fence it had crossed (to put it another way: the rose bush was eating the fence).
Having looked at the possible options in view of this problem, I spoke to the family and presented the three solutions that I found. The first and simplest of all: leave it as it was and risk losing all the rose. The second is to cut only the branch just below the tube holding the fence and tie it to prevent the same thing happening again in the future. And the third and most viable option: to prune the rose tree completely and leave the three main branches at the same height. They themselves observed that I was right to see that this could not continue in this way, and decided to go for the third option (cut the three main branches at the same height). I told them they chose very well because it also needed a good splurge.
In the photos you have seen just before this text, you can see the before and after of this rose bush. I started to make a general drain of small branches, and two of the larger ones I lowered so that when I cut off the troubled branch, it would be easier for me not to have any obstacles that would prevent me from working comfortably. But all said, it gave me more trouble than I thought. The initial plan was to start cutting from the top by making small chunks to improve final processing, but as I said was very high, I had to cut directly almost to the final height. In the areas where it was possible, I would cut on small pruning scissors, go as far as I could and then take the lever scissors and cut into the thickest areas, but the truth surprised me that it cost me more than I thought I would cut the last branch. I had to do a lot of strength because there was no way to cut it, but as they say in Spanish, better skill than strength, I cut it on two opposite sides and that made it easier for me to do the job. As I was beginning to be stuck with the fence, I had to do some play (drop the branch up and down in order to break this connection) and then it went off without any problem. Next, all I had to do was move it up and grab it on the other side, keeping a clear eye on the spikes that weren’t small. After watching, I saw that I could pull out a few cuttings to reproduce the rosette, so I looked at the best branches that were there and the ones that could give me a cutting and I pulled out a total of twelve bits. Once this was solved, only the three large branches and the other small branches had to be equaled and the angles had to be given (around forty-five degrees) and the work had already been completed. Between the prune in general and making the choice, because I had so many difficulties, I stayed a little over half an hour. Finally, I’m telling you an important point and how to plant a cutting in case you’re presented with the occasion at some point in your life. You have to be very careful and that’s why it’s the most relevant (it’ll seem obvious to you, but it’s always the point where people always get it wrong) that when you cut off the piece that you’re interested in, you have to respect the direction of growth, that is, you have to look at planting them that the side you cut down is the one that’s buried on earth. One way to identify directions is by cutting different at each end. For example, the end that must be buried can be cut straight, and the end that must remain on the surface can be directly cut at the right angle. So far as the substrate is concerned, I recommend it to be a quality substrate to give a little more possibility of living in cutting, and since I’m talking to you about recommendations, you can also contribute some root growth hormone (this product can be found in any gardening center), which will always help you move forward. Finally, try to have it in the sun for as many hours as possible and provide water frequently.