Not after last year LOL. I'm going to wait patiently this year.
; )

I have been thinking about it too. Nights have been rather cool here yet though. Down into the 20s some nights. But maybe this weekend I will get out there and start. Have so much to do as I did no clean up last fall, what with DH's accident and then surgery.

I remember our early warm up last year and then the cold in mid-April that really did a number on my roses. So maybe the slow warm up is good. Fingers crossed as I say that.

My WB is 3 feet above the fence, so I know what you mean!
Marylu

No, not yet. I'm beginning to get itchy, too, though. I usually wait until the forsythia bloom, and things are slow this year. We've had a few nice days here and there, but then it gets cold again. Lows in the 20s most nights yet. Ol' man winter isn't ready to let go quite yet. Soon, though, very soon . . .

Not yet, still have a few roses buried in snow banks. Barely starting to warm up here, today 50, but nights still below freezing. More consistent 50s predicted for next week.

I did bring up my tree rose from the cellar, which was putting out shoots. I did get to prune that one a bit in order to facilitate moving it in and out the door. It was fun to have pruners in my hand and cut something thorny.

I just started last weekend. I took on John Cabot, it took three rounds but I eventually won....

I usually wait until the middle of April - but in the case of T-Rex, aka Billy Baffin, I say prune when you want, this rose will take care of himself.

I started prunning yesterday. I also have been moving some roses. I wanted to move them before they start budding. The weather forcast for the next 10 days say we will not be going below 30's at night. Last year I prunned before the freeze and lost nothing. I can not wait on the forcynthia. I read and article that said that the damage last year was partly due to the very high and very low temps. This year it has just been cold. I hope I am right. Either way I have so many roses arriving that I could not bare the thought of all the work I had to do and my husband is on vacation from work and with four kids I had to take the chance.

I started pruning when the nights were consistantly in the thirties with an occasional 28º here and there...

I'm with Jackie o! I'm getting the itch, and with about 450 to prune I need to get going. Maybe this weekend I'll start.

Mike - how do you prune your Bucks if at all?

Well, a rabbit pruned one of my roses for me, does that count? I would be more upset about it but the rabbit seems to have done a good job. There's a couple of inches of nice green cane left without any brown ends.

The lows are finally above freezing this week so I might prune soon. I saw some new growth on Moondance, but I'm worried that is an RRD symptom as that rose had two RRD canes last fall that I cut off. It really shouldn't be growing right now. I have a bunch of other things I need to do for the next two weeks so pruning might have to wait. But I want to get out there and prune so I have a better idea of what is still alive and what I need to replace.

I started with 10 in the back of the house where they are somewhat sheltered from the weather. Just could NOT stand to look at those black canes anymore. Found lots of winter die back...also found lots of fat buds at ground level still under the mulch. New Dawn (HUGE)and Chic surprised me with how great they look. POSSIBLE fatalities are Memorial Day, Abby de whatshername, Tuscan Sun,and Pope John, to name a few. I am going to do the front of the house this weekend.

It is still way too early here. I don't want to get them zapped by another late freeze.

I'll let them sleep late.

F.L.

I'm going to start this weekend. I only have three at the moment, and they are all starting to bud out already. I want to move them to the back yard, so I need to get that done before they really get going, and I don't want to move them with those long thorny canes on top. I have two soaking that I'll plant out this weekend as well, and prune those as I go. Then I'll cross my fingers that the warming trend keeps "warming"...

Oh Iowa Jade, I admire your restraint!

Spring is not slow this year, it's like it's suppose to be. The warm periods in early March of the past few years are not normal. We've gotten use to it and have come to expect it.
The slowly increasing daily temperature averages are a good thing and are the way spring should arrive. This way the plants come out of dormancy slowly instead of quickly with a big growth spurt that can die in a late freeze. The longer we get into spring before it really warms up, the less chance we have that a late freeze will occur.
Patience my dear, patience!
Right now, I'm getting into the yard and just cutting back the winter dieback. I'll go out later and fine prune.
I'm watching day and night temps and have brought all my potted roses out of the greenhouse to make room for other more tender plants. Temperatures as low as 28F will not harm them.

terryjean - I get some cane dieback on the Bucks, and I take all that out, plus some more until I am sure the pitch is perfectly clear. I usually still have a few feet left when I am done, and I probably take out more than I need to.

I'm so tempted to start pruning, but I'm going to wait a little longer. WB is SO huge! He's the most difficult one to prune and each time we battle, I always come out of all scratched up even though I wear a heavy long sleeve jacket and jeans. I guess its a small price to pay. I also took a look at some other roses, and I could be wrong, but it looks like there's quite a bit of dieback. I guess I'll wait and see what makes it through the end of the month. In the meantime, I might just cut back some of my perennials, including peonies, asters, etc., and grasses. I've got to do something outside!! I guess I'm not very patient...:-)

No way! I'm not taking any chances this year. I lost too many last year and don't want to repeat that. Mine are still under their winter blankets of mulch and will stay that way for at least a week or even two. Or like rose nuttty said, when the forsythia blooms.

I did uncover the bulbs though. Poor things were trying to grow through the mulch and were all white and contorted.

I'm with Karl. I'm just cutting down the dead brown canes. That's not quite the same as pruning. Mother Nature makes sure that pruning is not too complicated here. Most roses die back to the mulch line anyway. That takes most of the guesswork out of pruning. Most of the damage I had last year was not caused by early pruning, but by the early warming that caused early growth that couldn't tolerate the cold snap.

Mike