Every spring in mid-February I prune the roses back hard. In Florida, roses don’t really get a dormant period, thanks to our nice warm weather. They don’t lose their leaves like they do up north, and mine usually bloom all year round. So I force them into a short period of dormancy when I prune them. I also remove all their leaves, which seems to help with lingering blackspot and insect problems. I prune the bushes back to about two to three feet off the ground, and within about six weeks, they will be blooming again. One nice benefit of this pruning is that the roses all bloom at the same time in April, putting on a great backyard color show!

This year I remembered to take “before” pictures so that I could contrast them with some “after” shots.

It took the better part of a full day to prune all the bushes, and remove all the stupid dollarweed growing underneath them. All the rains the past few weeks have certainly helped the dollarweed flourish. :-p Some of the bushes have also profited from that rain, and were about to bloom. It was hard to make myself prune those! :-p

I loaded the wheelbarrow with clippings over and over. Then I trimmed the crape myrtles, too. The pile of trash on the curb is quite impressive! Note the big fat pile of dollarweed on top of the trash can.