Chapter 6

Cutting

If you've followed my advice so far, you have some good-looking rose blooms on your hands. It would be a shame not to get a long life from them once you cut them from the bush.  If you follow the advice in this chapter, you will.

Shears

We rosarians will lend you any tool but our shears.  We use them for everything--for pruning, clipping, cutting.  We can't walk through the garden without them because we never know when we're going to see something that has to come off right now, before it gets worse or before we forget where it is.  Blind growth must be removed as soon as it is spotted, interior growth that is threatening to damage a bloom must be cleared, and broken stems need immediate removal.

Shears must be kept sharp so that clean cuts can be made.  First, buy shears that can be sharpened, not those that "never need sharp-ening," for they will.  I hate admitting that I paid to have my shears sharpened and oiled for the first few years I grew roses.  I knew that I should be doing it myself, but I'm generally so clumsy with my hands that I feared it was one of those tasks I couldn't master.

This time I was wrong.  I'm proud to say that I now have the sharpest shears around, and keeping them that way myself is a piece of cake.  All you need is a soft Arkansas sharpening stone, which you can get at any nursery or hardware store, and a can of all-purpose household oil.  Drag the cutting edge of the shears lightly over the stone the way you would a knife over a honing steel.  You'll work out the right motion for sharpening by following the contour of the blade as you rake it across the stone.  Apply the oil to the sharpening stone as you go.  The stone is porous and without the oil won't glide easily along the cutting edge of the shears.  By the time you finish, the oil will have spread evenly over the cutting edges, facilitating cutting.

It's wise to have a single pair of shears with which you cut blooms, maintain bushes, and prune.  Find one pair that will do all these things well, keep them sharp, and always store them in the same place so that you don't mislay them.  Shears should be comfortable to hold and easy to work.  The ones I prefer are on the heavy side of average weight.  Anything lighter seems flimsy.

You'll be surprised and confused when you shop for shears; there are so many!  Not only are there all sizes, but shears come in various shapes and for stated purposes.  I finally settled on one I like best--Felco No. 2.  I'm fairly nationalistic and buy American products whenever I have a reasonable option, but I move camp to Switzerland when it comes to shears.  We use them for every cut made at Garden Valley Ranch except at pruning time when extra-thick canes require loppers.  They're not cheap (none of the good ones are), but they'll last a lifetime if properly cared for.