How to Harvest Rose Flowers

Enjoy your roses outdoors in the garden or indoors in a vase. Extend their vase life and insure your rose plant’s health with proper harvesting.

Carry a clean bucket of fresh water out to the garden. This will help keep your cut flowers fresh while harvesting other flowers.

Use sharp bypass pruners when cutting roses for your indoor enjoyment. Cut rose flowers early in the morning just as the top of the bud is starting to open. This will maximize its vase life.

Make the cut on a slight angle above an outward facing bud above a 5-leaflet leaf. The new stems that sprout from this bigger cut will be thicker and sturdier. For younger plants you may only be able to prune back to a 3-leaflet leaf.

Remove lower leaves and recut the stem to the desired length on a slight angle. This prevents the stem from sealing to the bottom of the vase, preventing water uptake.

A bit more information: Add a few other garden fresh flowers to your arrangements. Baby’s breath, yarrow, phlox, Helenium, salvia, veronica, lilies, lady’s mantle leaves and flowers, and hosta leaves are a few perennials to include in your garden and flower arrangements.