Harvesting & Enjoying Roses

Enjoy your roses outdoors in the garden and indoors in a vase. Proper harvesting and deadheading will keep your repeat blooming roses beautiful throughout the season.

Cut roses for arrangements in the morning just as the top of the bud is starting to open. Make the cut above an outward facing, 5 leaflet leaf. Cut flowers back to a 3 leaflet leaf on young plants that may not tolerate or be large enough for this amount of pruning. Remove the lower leaves, recut the stem on an angle and place in a vase of fresh water.

Remove faded flowers to encourage new bloom. Deadhead single-flower roses back to the first 5 leaflet leaf to encourage stouter and stronger stems. Remove only individual flowers as they fade within a cluster. Once all the flowers are done blooming you can remove the flower stem back to the first 5 leaflet leaf. Always leave at least two, 5 leaflet leaves attached to the plant.

A bit more information: Extend the vase life of your garden-fresh cut flowers. Recut stems on an angle and place in a vase filled with fresh warm water and floral preservative. Set in a cool dark place for 12 hours or overnight.