How To: Properly prune roses in the summer

In order to properly prune a rose bush in the summer, you will need the following: shears, water, fertilizer, and mulch. Snapping off the head of a rose is called "Dead Heading". If you remove the bloom, the bush will stop expending energy on a dying or fading bloom. Instead, the energy will be directed to the new blooms. When you are pruning, you need to cut down to a portion of a stem that has 5 leaflets. When you cut, you should cut in the direction you want the new growth to go. It will sprout in the direction of the cutting. Roses need a lot of feeding: a good mulch and a good fertilizer. Wash them down really well with water every week.