08/20/2026
For Southern roses in late summer, the goal is a moderate reset, not the hard pruning you might do in late winter. In Texas and much of the South, a mid to late August prune can encourage a beautiful fall flush roughly 6 weeks later.
Here’s the simplest breakdown:
1. Cut out dead, diseased, damaged, or very weak/crossing canes all the way back to healthy growth. This means any canes skinnier than the yellow #2 size pencil.
2. Reduce the plant by about 1/3. For established shrub, hybrid tea, and garden roses, trim roughly the top 25–35%. Don’t scalp them in August—the leaves help protect the plant from Southern heat.
3. Cut just above a healthy outward-facing bud/leaf node. Make a clean cut about 1/4 inch above it, ideally at a slight angle away from the bud.
4. Open the center a little. Remove crowded or inward-growing stems so sunlight and airflow can get through. This is especially helpful in our Southern humidity where black spot and fungal disease love to party 😂
5. Strip off unhealthy foliage. Remove yellow, black-spotted, or diseased leaves from the plant and clean up fallen leaves underneath. Don’t compost obviously diseased foliage.
6. Water deeply after pruning. Keep the soil consistently moist during the heat, but avoid constantly wet foliage.
7. Pruning tells your roses to get back to work. So, after pruning, it’s important to feed it with a seaweed based fertilizer to give it the nutrients and energy it needs to produce new growth and blooms.
For climbers: don’t cut them back by ⅓ like shrub roses. Keep the long (thickest) structural canes (about 4-5 main ones) and mostly deadhead, remove dead/diseased wood, and lightly shorten laterals.
And the easiest rule to remember: “Late-summer pruning in the South is a haircut, not a buzz cut.” ✂️🌹
Tap the link below for an in depth tutorial video on how to prune over on our YouTube channel 🎥
https://youtu.be/9TjZNnPUVKg?is=am-UP0ME9SJbdeMd
