What kind of roses do you grow (hybrid teas, miniatures, old tea roses, china roses, other OGRs?). When and even whether to prune roses depends on what kind you have.

I live in zone 9 here in No Cal, and we prune anytime from Jan through the end of Feb.

The main thing to remember is that most roses are very happy in a zone 9 climate, and as long as they have adequate water, it is difficult to hurt them by postponing pruning, especially if you are expecting a hard freeze. If roses are not dormant, which they are probably not where you are, pruning them makes them put out new growth, which might get damaged in a hard freeze.

Hopefully someone from Arizona will respond, but if it was me I would wait.

If you can let us know what kind of roses you grow you will get better advice.

Jackie

I'd check with the local rose society and see what they recommend.

Here is a link that might be useful: Phoenix consulting rosarians

I agree with Hoov -- but it is also important to keep in mind what KIND of roses you are growing.

The "right" time to prune roses is extremely variable, but your storm is unlikely to produce enough cold, for enough time, to kill roses, or even damage them significantly.

If I was going to guess, I'd say this would be a winter in which waiting to prune until early-to-mid FEBRUARY might not be a bad strategy.

But to be safe, start by contacting local rosarians, and getting their "take" on the question. Be sure to tell them what sort of roses you're growing.

OH! And if you have any "Lady Banks" roses (they're pretty popular in your neck of the woods) those should have been pruned last summer. Don't prune them now at all! You'll cut off all of your spring bloom if you do!

If they get any freeze damage, cut off the damaged parts, and call it a day.

Jeri

Well, what do you know? There IS a Phoenix Rose Society! I had never heard of such a thing.

I don't know what my old roses are. And by old, I mean we bought this house in '89, and they were well-established then. I think I've talked about them on these forums before, but we haven't figured out what kind they are. Three grow in the floribunda way (the flowers grow in clusters). One has large single blooms.

I have two new baby roses bushes that I planted last February. One is Marmalade Skies and one is Shockwave. These are both floribundas, although the Marmalade Skies does more "group blooming" than the Shockwave.

Get in touch with that rose society and they may be able to do more than give you pruning advice. I'll bet if you invite them over when your roses are in bloom they will be able to give some names for your roses too!

I'm in a much colder climate than you BUT we cold climate people always wait until just before the roses are going to start to leaf out to do any hard pruning. So I'm thinking waiting is the answer for you too. I know yours probably never go completely dormant like mine do but when you start to see the leaf nodes on the canes fatten and turn red that's the time to start pruning. That way they're already in growth mode and will leaf out and grow quickly.

The coldest months here are typically January and February, and that's when I prune, assuming the roses need it. Right now there's almost nothing to prune since roses that did need it like Burgundy Iceberg and Cottage Rose are gone. I tip prune Mutabilis, SdlM and some of the teas to lightly shape them, but so many of my roses are young and won't need it for some years.

Ingrid

Ingrid --

Are you saying that small, young rose bushes don't need to be cut down?

I have grown roses in Scottsdale for many years and just finished pruning my roses today. Normally, I would not have pruned them this early, but am having surgery soon and need to get it done now.

It's hard to do a major pruning here as the roses don't go dormant on their own and will bloom some all winter. In fact, I filled vases with blooms this week in anticipation of the freezes we have had this week. Any buds with the sepals down were cut. The buds with no color were left and seem OK. I know it froze as I have some frost damage on some nasturtiums I didn't cover, but they will recover as they grow like weeds.

For roses like teas and noisettes, I prune lightly and don't strip leaves. I only strip leaves on HTs and this will force them into dormancy until Feb. I prefer to have all pruning done by Feb 1. Doing it earlier doesn't hurt them but you are robbing yourself of blooms.

Green Dream -- Once again, a great deal depends upon what sort of roses you are growing. It's hard to advise, without knowing that.

If you are discussing modern Hybrid Tea or Floribunda Roses, budded onto rootstock, then a fairly light pruning is probably fine for them. Remember that in your climate, most roses are not (as lizard points out) going to go dormant at all, and certainly won't be losing canes to freezing temps.

If, OTOH, you are discussing Old Garden Roses (or others) growing on their own roots, pruning will likely not be needed this year, and maybe not even next year.

If you can find a pruning demonstration, that would help you A LOT.

It takes temperatures around 27-28 degrees to harm new growth on most repeat-blooming roses. If such temperatures are expected, it would be well to wait until you are safe from them before pruning.

I wonder why zone 9b and 10 growers prune in winter at all, since it is the best weather for growing and blooming, and freeze damage won't occur most winters. It may just be a habit derived from practices in Britain and the colder parts of the US. (I'm guilty too, since I used to prune in winter in zone 9b Florida.) It seems like a good time to prune in the western low desert would be after the summer heat breaks, or in Florida after the summer rainy season with its heavy blackspot pressure. Where freeze damage is not an issue, repeat-blooming roses can be pruned at any time. In Lakeland, FL, Malcolm Manners prunes in March in order to maximize bloom at graduation time on the FSC campus.

PS: Don't think of pruning as "cutting down." In warm climates, modern bush roses are pruned to around 3', and some types of roses are hardly pruned at all. Old tea and China roses would be harmed by severe pruning.

This post was edited by michaelg on Sat, Jan 3, 15 at 13:18