In 2000, we purchased a home from the famed Colorado rosarian, Dr. Miles Markley, with the promise that we would continue to look after his heritage rose garden with love. I was given gardening lessons from Melanie who had tended the garden once Dr. Markley retired from tending himself. Passing on his advice, she recommended pruning the roses down to 6-10 inches from the ground in the spring when the first buds began to appear. Sometimes this meant cutting off 5 feet of rose cane to a 10" stick.
I just could not stand the thought of losing all the growth from the last year, so only cut what visibly needed to be cut, the dead and diseased canes. It took eight years before I realized that like a tree that loses its leaves, these too needed to begin fresh every spring by being cut nearly to the ground. Since my brutal hacking of the roses, I have had luscious, healthy roses ever since.
Lesson in life: Yearly, we need to take an assessment of our own lives. We need to give ourselves a thorough pruning by cutting out the influences that no longer serve us well, stepping away from relationships that do not support our growth and purpose, and giving away the things we have not used in a year.
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