We don't. Haven't in years.

But then, we grow mostly Tea Roses and Chinas, and they're saluting the cold, wet weather by blooming happily.

:-)

But look -- to simplify things -- once you've pruned, there won't be all that many leaves remaining.

Of those that remain, if they are old leaves, you could wait for a windstorm to blow them to kingdom come, or you could remove them. (I'd opt for a windstorm.) And NEW foliage is fine, and should not in any case be removed.

"Rules" like that make a great deal of sense for someone in a cold-winter zone -- and far less in Z-10 or warmer, where many roses are presently growing and blooming like mad.

Jeri

Where and why does defoliating roses make sense? What is the purpose of it?

I've noticed that on quite a few of my roses the older leaves near the bottom of the bushes are turning yellow and most of them fall very easily when I touch them. Usually by February most of the bushes (except for the tea roses and Mutabilis) have pretty well denuded themselves. With the roses that I prune quite a few of the leaves are removed when the canes are pruned, and it's easy to take off the rest if I feel like it. Sometimes a good blast of water from the hose will remove old leaves easily. I just let the leaves remain under the bushes as mulch since blackspot is not a big problem here. I rarely prune my tea roses since I want them to get big and the same is true of the bourbons. I don't care for modern hybrid teas so pruning or taking off leaves is not a big issue with me since most older roses aren't that picky.

Ingrid

I spent the morning helping to do the pruning in the city rose garden. There were a lot of people and lots of roses full of leaves, but by the time we would finish pruning there were just a few leaves left. They did not have any mulch in the beds so it was easily raked out.

In my garden I only have a few HT roses so pruning and removing a few sick leaves is not that hard. I do use mulch so picking every leaf up probably not going to happen.

I think if it was important to me to remove leaves, I would have pulled the mulch to one side about a month ago, let most of the dying (spent) leaves fall, prune, rake and respread the mulch.

Here's an old thread I found when I was wondering the same thing. I have no trouble removing leaves if it looks like they need to go, but I decided its not worth the time and effort if the leaves look perfectly healthy. I'm new at this, so I could change my mind about that at any moment. LOL

Here is a link that might be useful: Removing leaves in winter in So. CA.

BBoy -- The basic idea is disease control/prevention -- that fungal spores overwintering on foliage will transfer disease to new spring foliage -- and so all old foliage should be removed, prophylacticly.

Right now, following last month's bitter (for us) cold, our garden is a symphony of yellows. We have at least some rose foliage turning yellow, right along with things like plumeria and wisteria leaves. At the same time, I see crisp new mahogany red and clear green, where other roses are growing nice new leaves.

If (as I suspect) our current rainfall is followed by a few windy days, most of that foliage will have blown away.

Jeri
Coastal Ventura Co., SoCal

Your timing is terrific, I just finished pruning my 24 roses , all in pots yesterday. Even though I really don't have to in our area, I usually have a better rose garden in the spring and summer when I do. Here is my method(I am 72 and have a lot of arthritis so I can not do them all in one day)
First off I find a nice sunny day and tell myself to find out what I can create with rose branches. I take the plants one by one and lope the top of the rose bush off, leaving it a bit taller then I want the bush to be. Then I remove all inward facing branches. Then I remove all leaves that are remaining, there are not too many by then. I remove them because of disease problems possible by leaving on the bush. I leave 3 -5 branches remaining on each bush, considering on what i want the final bush to look like. I now follow up on those branches and cut back until I see a leaf pimple starting to point in the direction I want the next branch to grow in. , clean up all leaves around it and toss and you are finished. This sounds like a lot of work; but it really is not once you get going and the sun feels good on your body. I find this is a good way to get away from the commotion of family life when you need it------ kids, husbands, laundry, work, dogs etc. No one wants to bother you because then you might ask them to help you! Remember it does not have to all be done in a day. Mine took about 2 weeks depending on the weather and my mood.
And that is a Grandmothers advice!!!! Judith Piazza

Your timing is terrific, I just finished pruning my 24 roses , all in pots yesterday. Even though I really don't have to in our area, I usually have a better rose garden in the spring and summer when I do. Here is my method(I am 72 and have a lot of arthritis so I can not do them all in one day)
First off I find a nice sunny day and tell myself to find out what I can create with rose branches. I take the plants one by one and lope the top of the rose bush off, leaving it a bit taller then I want the bush to be. Then I remove all inward facing branches. Then I remove all leaves that are remaining, there are not too many by then. I remove them because of disease problems possible by leaving on the bush. I leave 3 -5 branches remaining on each bush, considering on what i want the final bush to look like. I now follow up on those branches and cut back until I see a leaf pimple starting to point in the direction I want the next branch to grow in. , clean up all leaves around it and toss and you are finished. This sounds like a lot of work; but it really is not once you get going and the sun feels good on your body. I find this is a good way to get away from the commotion of family life when you need it------ kids, husbands, laundry, work, dogs etc. No one wants to bother you because then you might ask them to help you! Remember it does not have to all be done in a day. Mine took about 2 weeks depending on the weather and my mood.
And that is a Grandmothers advice!!!! Judith Piazza

I never do it, unless the leaves are obviously diseased - blackspot or rust, especially. I only have 2-3 mid 20th century HTs which get rust (keeping them because they were planted by my DH's grandfather). I cut off leaves with rust so that they fall into a large paper bag, as they are covered with spores - then I throw it into the garbage.

I have lots of teas and chinas, which are just beginning to bloom right now, and leafed out a month ago. I also have some HUGE house eating climbers - if I took off all of the leaves it would take months - does not happen.

Jackie

Once, we attended a pruning class, given by a prestigious SoCal rosarian.

He told the group that all foliage must be removed.

One in the audience protested -- "What? ALL? Even on really huge roses?" to be told, YES. ALL.

The man kept asking, and the rosarian kept insisting, but finally stopped, and said: "What rose IS this?"

The reply was . . .
...
...
...
...
" . . . A very old 'Climbing Cecile Brunner' . . . "

To which the Rosarian replied ... "Oh, just leave it alone!"

So, when push comes to shove, the correct answer probably is: "It depends."

Jeri

Yes, unless there are only a few bushes the only practical approach is to either plant clean kinds of roses or spray them.

The latter is definitely not an option as far as I am concerned, let alone am I going to go picking leaves off.

When I had a rose collection here I had no trouble identifying and acquiring kinds that were not disease magnets. Now I just have several kinds, due to taking most of the front garden out and putting in lawn, in order to regain control and make the property more conventionally appealing (in anticipation of when the time comes that I am not here anymore).

Some do, some don't. Interesting replies, and as a plus I learned about teas...that they are, sadly , too big for my smallish garden....and they are verrry prickly. I also learned I've not been taking off enough branches: all under pinkie width. Thanks to all of you, expect I'll have a better roses year. Oh, and if the winds don't kick up this week, I will remove all the ugly leaves and sweep them up before composting. I feel like such a slow rose learner. Love this forum's generous members . :)