Met a guy at the community garden who taught me how to actually prune roses

I was out at the Oakwood community garden last Saturday trying to trim back my rose bushes and honestly I was just hacking away at them. This older guy, probably in his late 60s, walked over and asked if he could show me something. He knelt down and pointed out these little buds at the base of each stem, said you gotta cut at a 45 degree angle right above those or the plant gets confused. I had no idea roses were that picky. He even showed me how to tell dead wood from just old wood by the color inside the stem. It was like a whole new world opened up for me in ten minutes. Has anyone else had a random stranger give them a gardening tip that totally changed their routine?

2 comments

2 Comments

ivan_perez4d ago

That older guy at the community garden sounds like he really knew his stuff, I'm glad he took the time to show you the right way. Ngl, I love hearing about random acts of gardening kindness like that.

johns183d ago

Always figured pruning was just hacking stuff back until it looked right, that guy proved me dead wrong with a few simple cuts. Makes me wonder how many plants I've accidentally killed over the years.