How to Prune Roses in Season

Prune your roses as the first blooms of spring appear or as the last blooms of the season fall away. Pruning your roses at the height of the growth season can result in injury to the plant as essential sap bleeds out of the open wounds.

Cut away any dead or dying branches or shoots with your pruning shears. Identify dead portions of the plant by their gray or brown color and lack of new growth.

Choose a form and size that you wish your rose bush to take. Knowing your pruning goals before you begin to cut can make the process easier and more productive. Look over the plant from bottom to top to see where branches lead and which parts will be necessary to keep intact to obtain the shape you desire.

Inspect the plant for damaged branches or shoots and cut them away. Snapped branches or branches with cuts in them can sap the energy of a plant, which will try to repair them rather than create new healthy growth and flowers. Your cuts should be at an angle and made at the first point where dead, dying or damaged wood or stems turn to healthy plant.

Cut away any branches or shoots that are growing against the overall shape and progress of the plant. Cut these growths back as far as possible to discourage regrowth.

Inspect the base of the plant for new growth or "suckers," which stem at the root of the existing plant and will sap nutrients to promote their own progress. Dig just beneath the soil and detach the suckers from the roots of your rose bush to ensure they do not return.

Cut the rose bush into the shape you wish, making sure not to cut off more than one-half the top of the bush. The more you cut the larger but the fewer your flowers will be.

Remove any new shoots that are less than a pencil's width. These will not develop fully in the current season and will sap energy from the mature branches around them.