Oh, my YES! How you prune, and when you prune, and how much you remove are all variables, depending upon what sort of roses you have.

Statistical probability says that your roses are most likely modern Hybrid Tea Roses and Floribundas. But they COULD be other things.

Can you take photos of your plants, and post them here? That would help folks in your area to give you specific advice. But on the face of it, I'd be inclined to say that you should let 'em bloom and then deadhead them, and THEN figure out what to do next year.

Jeri (In Southern California)

Jeri's right. There are different pruning needs for different types of roses. However, pruning right after a bloom flush is a pretty safe choice for most of them. You will need to deadhead them anyway so doing it deeper and pruning and shaping at that time shouldn't be a problem. If they are repeat bloomers it will encourage rebloom and if they are once bloomers that is the best time to prune them so they will have time to build new growth for next years bloom. Please post some photos so we can help you ID what you have. We may not be able to give you an exact name but I'm sure someone will be able to give you some idea of what types of roses they are. That information will make it easier to find specific care instructions.

Yes, we need pictures. But, two things:

1. Obviously you don't want to cut off flower buds. For this year, you can prune each bush when it finishes its first flush of bloom.

2. Don't prune in fall.

Trying to post pictures. I guess you can only post one picture per message? Well, here's one picture. This shows both of the bushes. They look similar, but different, to me.

Close up picture of the bush on the left.

Close up picture of the bush on the right.

I do my pruning in early spring in MD. All repeat bloomers. Last year I had to do some pruning after the hurricane, that caused lots of branch problems.

I'm with Jeri.

Your plant on the right is Blushing Knock Out. I would wait until after it blooms, then clip off the old blooms and shape the plant how you like. Take out any canes that are dead. Blushing Knock Out can pretty much be trimmed with hedge clippers, you don't need to do any special angle cuts (I don't even do that any more on my hybrid teas) or opening up.

We won't be able to tell what the other one is until it blooms. I would also wait until after that one blooms to do any pruning.

I think your roses look fantastic. That's some of the healthiest foliage I've seen on Garden Web in a long time. You should know that Knock-out roses grow quite large in mild climates. You can prune them annually in spring (with a late summer haircut) to try to keep them in bounds or move them to a location where they can grow 6x6 (I'd move them in Nov or March). Nice roses.