Met a retired botanist at the community garden who changed how I deadhead roses

I was out pruning my knockout roses last Tuesday when this older guy named Hank wandered over from his plot. He told me I was cutting too far down the stem and showed me exactly where the next bud would form if I left more node. Has anyone else had a random stranger give them a piece of gardening wisdom that actually stuck?

2 comments

2 Comments

kevin_dixon12d ago

Did Hank ever explain why leaving more node helps the rose bush?

the_cole12d ago

Laugh every time Hank goes on a rant about nodes. Dude treats them like they're some kind of mystic chakra points for plants. Pretty sure he saw one YouTube video from a guy with a thick accent and never looked back. Still, I tried it on a scraggly rose I was about to toss, and it didn't die immediately. So either he's onto something or I just got lucky, which is usually how my gardening goes.