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When healthy and happy, rose bushes produce beautiful and fragrant flowers that liven up any yard. Care and upkeep are essential to maintaining the health of the rose bush, and that's where pruning comes in. To learn more, we headed straight to the Yahoo! Roses category for some cutting-edge advice. After leafing through the web sites, we learned there are as many theories about pruning as there are varieties of roses. Our first stop was Rosemania. Their helpful guide to Basic Spring Pruning looks at "the why," "the what," and "the how-to" of pruning. The "why" section examines the purpose of pruning -- to promote
new and healthy growth. The "what" section covers the essential tools and accessories needed to complete the job. The "how-to" section is more detailed, so we'll let you read it for yourself. Basically, you need to make the proper cut to a stem in exactly the right spot. The site offers a great diagram of the anatomy of a rose bush to help you prune perfectly. Next we paid a visit to the official site of the American Rose Society. We clicked through to the Rose FAQ and found a page that outlined the tasks involved in pruning.
We learned that a sharp, clean set of bypass pruners is an indispensable tool for pruning. We also read that you should weed out the sickly or thin branches early in spring to promote strong growth throughout the blooming season. One final piece of advice -- although we didn't see it mentioned anywhere -- remember the sage words of the band Poison, who said, "Every Rose Has Its Thorn." Be careful when pruning!
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