Right time to prune roses in SF Bay Area?

I have not done major pruning yet.

I'm in Peninsular , Santa Clara county.

Should I prune now? There is frost at night, and some leave are getting brown.

Should I apply "dormant spray" now?

Most of my roses are tree roses, but I have four bushes, two. Most are grandifloras.

Please do not post any generic recommendations -- only local, please.

Right time to prune roses in SF Bay Area?
It's best to not do it now while the night temps have been hovering around the 28-30 degree mark. Best time for the Bay Area is a little after "Valentines" day..lol. If you cut back the branching and the canes now and the cold freezing weather continues, you may get a substantial amount of "die back". You'll want to have all the length of canes you can get in the spring. By leaving them long at this time, if there is any die back on the tips, you will have plenty left to be able to prune back to the right height in late Feb. Another alternative would be to take something such as a 30 gal. garbage bag and cover/enclose the tops of the trees with it and tie it off at the bottom with some string or the like. Do this in the early evening before dark if a freeze is forcasted. The next day, in the late morning when the sun comes out and the temps warm up or before you go to work, you will need to remove the bags or it will become too hot for the trees. Covering them this way, will keep the frost from damaging the canes and branching during the cold night time temps. And again, your pruning back can be done between Feb.14th to the end of the month.



There is no need to apply dormant oil at this time, however, after you prune in early spring and when the leaf buds begin to push out new leaves, you should apply a fungicide, such as Ortho's "funginex" for roses (available at any garden center) at two week intervals throughout spring or until the plants are fully leafed out. This will help control diseases such as "blackspot" which attacks the new growth. Also, it is a good idea to clean up the soil from around the base of the plants. Pickup and remove any leaves that have dropped and are lying on the soil. These leaves, if infected with disease, will spread it to the newly budding plants. Hope this answers your question. Good luck!



$Billy Ray$
Reply:Now is a good time.