Happy New Year! I hope you and yours are ready for a wonderful 2024. So, what do we do in the rose garden this month? Actually, not too much in the actual garden itself. It is time to get ready for our annual pruning, either very late January or the beginning to the middle of February.

I wait until the beginning to the middle of February to conduct my annual pruning. Those of you up in the mountains and foothills may need to wait a little longer. Why? Because we still can get frost or freeze in January. If I pruned prior to then and we had a late cold snap, all the new growth would be damaged, and I would have to start all over again. Better to wait. Pruning tells your rose that its winter "nap" or dormant time is over, and it is time to start pushing out new growth. You can expect the first flush of blooms about 10 weeks after pruning.

What do I do instead of pruning?

It is time to make sure all of the leaves from your roses that have fallen in your yard are picked up and put in the green trash bin, not your home compost bin. Yup. The green trash bin. Rose leaves can carry diseases and home composting will not get hot enough to destroy those diseases.

The second thing on my agenda is to make sure my tools are clean and sharp. Please don't waste your time on cheap garden equipment. Invest in a good pair of bypass pruners. Bypass pruners are the ones that have a sharp curved cutting blade (which slices through the cane) and a dull curved non-cutting blade (which holds the cane in place while you are cutting it). Don't use pruners that have a sharp flat blade that rests against a flat dull blade. They are not good for pruning roses.

Also have a good pair of loppers. Loppers come in different size blades. Those different sizes will have a maximum diameter that they can cut efficiently. If you use a lopper that is too small for your cane, you will damage the cane and possibly the lopper. If you have large canes, you may need to use a hand saw (such as a keyhole saw) with a narrow blade. Pruning saws will also work.

I love my tools and it is important to take good care of them. Keep them clean. I use rubbing alcohol to clean the blades on my pruners and loppers to help prevent disease transmission from rose to rose. I wipe them down after pruning or cutting each individual rose bush. There are alcohol wipes that work great for this purpose, and I just carry them with me from plant to plant. Do not use any cleaners with bleach in them. They will eventually ruin your blades.

Another important piece of equipment is my gloves. I don't like getting stabbed by my rose bushes. I use goat skin gloves or leather gloves. Make sure you find ones that fit your hands and that are made entirely of goat skin or leather. I thought I would try a new glove that is only half coated with something to prevent thorns from going through. First rose I touched, I got stabbed. I immediately went back to my leather gloves.

Don't wear gloves that are too big for your hands. Take the time to find a good pair that fits you! They will save you in the long run. I have known too many rosarians that have ended up having to seek medical care for cuts from roses or thorns getting stuck in their fingers. Roses carry some nasty diseases and if you do get cut, it is important to either get a tetanus shot or be up to date on your tetanus injections. I just prefer not to get cut from the get-go! Saves a whole lot of my precious time.

What else do I wear when pruning? I have specific rose gloves with long sleeves on them, but prefer my regular pruning gloves, so I wear welder sleeves when I prune. They fit my arms entirely and keep away the thorns while allowing me to move easily. Some of my roses are taller than I am, so being covered is important.

In addition to cleaning my gardening equipment, I also keep the blades sharp and lubricated. I will sometimes use 0000 steel wool to clean the blades and then lubricate them with oil. Any oil will do. Just use a drop or two to coat the surface. No need to drench. The oil will also keep your pruners from rusting. How do I sharpen my blades? There are different methods to do this. Some prefer diamond files. I use an all-in-one tool. It has a carbide bar and a ceramic bar to restore and hone all sorts of knives, shears, hoes, spades, etc. Super easy and quick to use.

One more task I will do this month is to make sure my irrigation system is in good working order and ready to go for spring/summer. I check my drip system to make sure that the emitters are working properly. I also make sure my timer is set to the proper day and times.

So that is it! Take some important time to take care of your tools, because they will take care of you and your roses. Clean up the rose garden so it is ready to plant and fertilize in February (or later if you live in the mountains/foothills). Time to be patient. Don't fertilize your roses this month. It is not time for that. That will come soon enough. Next month, I will go over how to prune your roses and climbing roses.

My rose of the month is Mlle. Franzika Kruger. I call her my Frannie Kruger rose! She is an antique rose and absolutely beautiful. She was bred by Gilbert Nabonnand in France in 1873. She is orange-pink, with pink undertones and a yellow center. She is moderately fragrant and blooms in flushes throughout the season.

She will get big so it is important to have room for her to grow. She also has another name which is Souvenird'EliseVardon. This picture shows a young rose and rose bush. Her colors will deepen to a beautiful peach as she gets older.

Until next time . . . "One of the tragic things I know about human nature is that all of us tend to put off living. We are all dreaming of some magical rose garden over the horizon - instead of enjoying the roses that are blooming outside our windows today." - Dale Carnegie