Like everything else about pruning, it depends on the size and health of the rose. Good leaves - even if they are on a blind shoot - are going to provide nourishment to the bush.

So, if you have a weak one or young one and you're interested in getting it started out strong - be patient. There will be plenty of shoots with buds later on.

If it's a strong bush with plenty of buds and the blind shoots are anomalies - then by all means - cut back to the next 5-leaflet leaf and command that thing to produce!

I hope the answer is yes because I cut mine back today! Same problem here. We were in the 80s in March and April has been chilly. The roses grew like crazy really early and then zip. They've slowed down to a crawl and all the cane ends had big blobs of leaf growth and no buds. I took them all back again in the hope that new growth will bring some buds. I figure I'm about 8 weeks out from my first rose show in June so now was the time!

What to do about blind shoots would be more obvious if the name were changed to "blind tips". "Blind shoots" implies that the entire shoot is flawed and should be removed. The truth is, only the tip is flawed and you can treat it as if it had just finished flowering, meaning deadhead the tip and expect the rest of the shoot to send out new flowering stems. Deadheading now should be perfectly safe in your zone.