Blackened stems of roses after winter are a common sight that upsets many gardeners. Most often, it is not a matter of severe frosts, but of small care errors: they covered it too late, removed the cover early, or sudden temperature changes damaged the plant tissue. You shouldn’t say goodbye to the bush right away; in most cases, the rose can still be brought back to life. How to do this correctly, the author of the Zen channel “Garden, House, Vegetable Garden” (12+) told.
Step 1: Carefully Trim Any Black
Take a sharp pruner and wait until the border between living and dead tissue is clearly visible. Cut off all blackened, dry and wrinkled shoots to the first green bud that looks outward of the bush. If the damage is severe and the blackness has reached the base, prune radically and leave only short stumps with 2-3 dormant buds. This will signal the plant to send out new stems from the roots.
Step 2: Process the cuts
Each cut site must be protected from infection. Garden pitch, a crushed tablet of activated carbon or a weak solution of copper sulfate (1%) will do. Just apply the product to the cut. This will close the “gate” to fungi and bacteria.
Step 3. Help the rose cope with stress
After pruning, spray the bush with an anti-stress agent: dilute Epin-Extra or Zircon according to the instructions and treat the entire bush and the ground around it. Repeat 2-3 times with a break of a week. This will consolidate the effect and start recovery processes.
After all procedures, provide the bush with the usual care: regular watering, mulching the root circle and, after 2-3 weeks, fertilizing with nitrogen fertilizer for growth. The rose will answer you with new shoots and summer blooms.
