When a rose flower is beginning to wilt, it should be removed. This process is known as “deadheading” and is done to keep roses looking attractive and encourages more blooms. This is not the same as pruning rose bushes. Deadheading isn’t all that difficult. But it is essential if you want to encourage your plants to bloom all season long. During the blooming or summer season, you should deadhead a rose bush regularly until the bush starts to harden for the winter. This video shows you how to deadhead individual blooms as well as cluster-flowering roses.
If you let a blossom stay until it turns brown and forms a hip, the plant often thinks it’s time to start putting its energy into developing seeds so it can reproduce.
Simply removing the old flowers works well and it is not essential to spend time counting leaflets on your rose bushes!
Using scissors or pruners, just snip the stem below the wilted blossoms. While you are cleaning up the plant it might be most efficient to remove those flowers that will be spent in the next day or two. Shrub roses can even be deadheaded with hedge shears if that is easier. This video gives you some simple tips to deadheading roses.
Continue with regular fertilization of your rose plants after deadheading. Some roses will produce new flowers right away and others will bloom in the autumn. A few rose varieties don’t repeat bloom at all.