Rose pruning….
It takes a fearless person to prune a rose. Brandishing its protective thorns, the row of leafless bushes awaits us like the vicious magical Whomping Willow in the Harry Potter series, ready to throw us to the winds.
Armed with loppers, protected with elbow skimming rose gloves—the closest I’ll ever come to Mia Farrow’s favorite length—we faced the prickly branches.
Where to start thinning? Like a yoga chant, the rules started running through one’s subconscious: thinner than a pencil, rubbing, main canes…
Gradually the spindly support of last year’s blooms was cast aside, a faint memory of last May’s flush of happy blossoms. Old rubbed canes fell to stronger green upstarts.
Eventually, a bare skeleton emerged from the entanglements, a garden star ready for its next act: its primadonna performance in the dance called Spring.
Elizabeth
Brush up on rose pruning tips here with Mariana Greene of the Dallas Morning News.
DALLAS GARDEN BUZZ 