I'd wait a little while. While the forthysia is a great indicator, it can often bloom a week or so earlier than the best time to prune. Local weather conditions can cause the ideal pruning time to be set back.
Keep in mind, temperatures in the upper 20s will not cause severe damage to newly pruned roses.
I've prune a few roses already but lightly replaced the leaves used as winter protection. They provide enough protection from temporary cold snaps and still allow the new growth to harden off.
New spring growth contains lots of sugars that act as a natural antifreeze.

My major concern about pruning too early is that severe pruning, if needed, will force basal and near-basal shoots that I don't want to lose. If you are pruning shrubs lightly, I doubt that it makes any difference. Sprouts that were going to grow out anyway may be lost in a hard freeze, but nothing can be done about that.

As Karl said, don't take the first forsythia blooms as a surefire signal. Here it usually comes too early for severe pruning by a week or two. But this year the forsythia is two weeks later than usual.

I try to do any severe pruning the last week of March. This is based on 27-degree freezes being unusual after April 15th here. It takes at least two weeks for pruning-forced shoots to break if they haven't already swelled.

Here the forsythia is the worst indicator, at least in my garden. It blooms so late that one must done pruning the entire garden or almost if does not want to do pruning in July.

I didn't want to start another post of a very similar quetion but I'm still not clear on when to prune shrub roses.

Forsythia starts to bloom 1st week of April in my area.

Many buds don't start to swell untl mid-to late April...that when I prune shrubs that flower on new wood. Same apply to shrub roses?

I'm not to the point that I'm overly anxious I just don't want to prune them too late.

Also does everyone typically cut the shrub roses down to about 8" of the ground?

When it's time to prune, YOU PRUNE. You could possibly wait a week, but not much later. Meteorological spring has sprung, so there will not be much damage now if it does get a bit snappy. The sun is just too high now for harm to be done.

whaas,

I would NOT prune shrub roses down to 8", unless your canes are winter-damaged, then you would have to prune that low.

whaas,

Not only look for the Forsythia to bloom in your area, but, keep an eye on your local weather 10 day forecast.

I would NOT prune shrub roses down to 8", unless your canes are winter-damaged down that far, then you would have to prune that low.

Ok so I get the timing for the forsythia blooming, thats a function of soil temp.

But if thats not the surefire signal then I don't understand the when its time to prune you prune. The question is when is it time (for shrub roses in zone 5)?

I know its not a date, I know you can't rely on a forecast..there must be some other signal. The only one that makes senses is when the buds begin to swell.

OK, so if you don't prune them to 8" what height to you prune them to?

Some sources say 8-12", others say to use the 1/3 method like any other shrub.

I went to down and planted a dozen shrub roses throughout the growing season last year.

I already have bud break, amazingly enough, on many of my roses, so pruning has begun. But I will be pruning lightly for the most part, just trimming out deadwood and doing a wee little bit of shaping.

whaas,

Are these young roses?
You can still get severe frosts after your buds swell or even after the leaves emerge some years. Our buds swelled March 18th and last morning (March 27th) temps reached down to 18 degrees. Tonights temps expected 29 degrees.
Last year I pruned April 15th, which was alittle late for our area, so, i'd guess your pruning time will be in April sometime.
I wait until the forsythia bloom, which is usually late March or first week of April here, then I watch our 10 day weather forecasts looking for night-time temps to stay steady above 32 degrees. There is no perfect time or way of truly knowing. Mamma nature does what she wants. Just use commom sense.

I really do not know how to answer your pruning question. If they were mature shrubs, i'd tell you to try the 1/3 method, unless winter-dead canes says, otherwise.
Being young roses, some people hard prune, others light prune until they mature. But, winter-kill needs pruned out either way. I have not yet decided which way is best for young ones. So far winter here has dictated how it gets pruned and it usually ends up with not much cane length left. LOL

I think your right...the more I researched I found you don't really need to prune the roses until the 2nd or 3rd growing season.

And when they are ready some prune light, some prune hard to 12". Others select a 1/3 of the best canes and prune the rest.

I'll post a seperate topic with some pics of various roses. Some I can easily figure out how to prune. Others have at least 20 canes growing from the crown. Some stems were clearly cut back and died, but some many canes have grown around the dead canes I don't even know how to get to them.

This March has been one of the warmer ones on record and the forsythia doesn't even look like its ready to blooms. 1st week of April is typically the start.

whaas,

Go ahead and make another thread if you wish. Another suggestion: contact your local rose society and speak to other rose growers in your area for advice. You could learn alot by doing this.

whaas,

Yeah, dead and unproductive canes need removed entirely from the rose bush to make room for younger productive canes to grow. Twiggy (small) growth needs removed.

Whaas,

You're making the idea and concepts of pruning too complicated for yourself. No doubt because you have been doing a lot of reading of rose books... Most mainstream rose culture, practice and info in North America is based on those that garden in significantly warmer zones than zone 5 Milwaukee.

Winter kill is going to be the single largest deciding factor of what to prune away and how in your zone. Expect all but the hardiest roses, or those planted in a nice little microclimate area, to have significant winter kill each year unless you have very hardy varieties such as Explorers/Parkland's, OGR's, a small handful of Buck roses, some of the Austins and other hardier type shrub rose varieties.

If you want to make pruning simple, just prune off all the dead cane and then find where the cane is viable and alive. Ideally find an outward facing swollen bud and prune the cane there. Do that for all of the canes and roses and you are done. Prune for shape and size on hardy roses where lots of cane is left, if you so choose.

You will find that some roses will have a lot more cane left than others based on each rose's inherent hardiness. Shrub roses for instance, vary greatly in their individual hardiness, whereas by and large, HT's and Floribunda's are not hardy at all and will mostly need to be pruned close to the soil line in zone 5.

As for the idea about not pruning for 2 to 3 years to allow the rose to build a foundation, again, this is based on warm zones with little to no dieback and also applicable to once blooming old garden roses and also specific climbing/rambling varieties that only bloom on old wood. This advice is not applicable to our zones unless you are growing really hardy roses or winter protecting them extensively, as otherwise, there will always be dieback that needs to be pruned out.
Really, my best advice is to just stop worrying about how much to prune. It really isn't complicated stuff and nature will dictate this for you each year. Just prune off/down the dead canes, find good cane and prune there. Later, if some of the cane wasn't good and dies off, just prune it away later. The rose will take care of the rest.

Good luck.

Jim1961,
"Twiggy (small) growth needs removed."
*********
Actually no, it doesn't and shouldn't be removed. This theory is based on HT rose exhibition culture using the basis that non-flowering twiggy growth is unsightly and saps energy somehow from the flowering shoots that one wants to encourage.

In actuality, the opposite is true. Twiggy growth adds leaves to the rose which benefit the rose in photosyntehsis and overall nutrient processing. There have been studies to show that roses benefit more by leaving this twiggy, leafy growth in place, rather than pruning it out.

What may be sage advice for an HT exhibitor, does not make good advice for general garden roses.

The advice to prune to 8-12" is for hybrid teas and obsolete even for them. Nowadays, most people in warm climates prune HTs to 18-30." But in the North you are lucky to save 8" of sound cane with the benefit of snow cover.

With shrub roses, don't prune severely unless you have to because of winter damage. It may be advisable to clear out crowded centers. It may be advisable to cut back tips to 1/4" and cut floppy shoots back until they are self-supporting. With some varieties, old canes (over 3 years old) may become less productive. You can observe these in June and remove the unproductive canes after blooming. You should cut back young green canes that show dark brown pith in the center. You may shape the plant.

Main points:

a. Don't remove a lot of healthy wood from shrub roses unless you are trying to reduce the normal size. Doing so reduces bloom.

b. Don't be anxious. Plants know how to grow and can survive a range of treatments as well as no pruning at all.

c. Shrub roses differ. Experiment and observe what works best for each variety.

First off, I only prune to shape or remove damaged/diseased canes.

I've also found if the rose is winter hardy it doesn't matter much what time (starting in Feb) I prune and if not winter hardy there's still nothing I can do. What will die dies anyway, I don't winter protect anything.

Saturday morning there was ice on the ground, and none of the new foliage was affected.