All stems, no blooms on roses? It likely was the weather

An odd phenomenon is happening in my Sacramento rose garden – and I’m sure I’m not alone.

Where there should be buds, there are only stubs.

Those are “blind shoots,” growth that never produces a flower.

Due to our roller-coaster spring weather, my roses started their big spring bloom about two to three weeks later than normal. That meant they hit their first peak of bloom in May, not April.

I’m currently in my first big round of “dead heading,” snipping off spent blooms. As I removed those faded flowers, I noticed many, many stems with blind shoots.

The stems look healthy with lots of foliage and fast growth. But no matter how long those stems grow, they won’t sprout a bloom.

Blind shoots are the result of extreme fluctuations in temperature and growing conditions. Our yo-yo

weather in April and May confused many bushes, especially when temperatures plunged back below normal.

Another oddity: Blind shoots can appear on the same bush with normal blooming stems.

Some rose varieties are more sensitive to temperature fluctuations than others. In the last two weeks, I’ve seen blind shoots on more than 100 bushes in my own garden. They’re appeared on almost every hybrid tea in my garden as well as most of the floribundas and many miniatures. Even the David Austin shrub roses have blind shoots.

This is a condition on modern reblooming roses, which covers most varieties commonly grown in home gardens. (Old garden varieties introduced more than a century ago include many once-blooming roses such as ‘Lady Banks’ banksia roses; their growth after initial spring bloom is all foliage, no buds.)

Fortunately, the cure for blind shoots is easy: Prune them off. Restart the growth by cutting the cane or shoot back about 5 or 6 inches, snipping about 1/2-inch above a leaf with five leaflets.

Modern roses rebloom in warm months six to eight weeks after deadheading. So, trimming off those spent flowers and blind shoots now should produce a fresh wave of flowers in mid to late July.

Rose bushes need more nutrients for that next round of flowers. After deadheading, deep water and feed roses a balanced fertilizer. (Always water before feeding to prevent foliage burn.)

If possible, put down a 1-inch layer of aged compost around bushes. That mulch both feeds the plant as well as maintains soil moisture and keeps roots comfortable during hot days to come.

How much water do roses need? During summer, a full-size hybrid tea requires about 5 gallons of water per week. If using drip irrigation, roses do best with at least two or three emitters, spaced on either side of the bush. That gets water to all its roots, not just on one side.