Hi adi_az: I assume that az means Arizona, so I found an excellent article in Gardenguides.com, entitled, "How to prune rose bushes in Arizona". Here's an excerpt from below link:

Step 1

Prune all dead or diseased canes. These canes will appear black, brown, shriveled or otherwise discolored. Make your cut at least 1 inch below the diseased portion of the cane so you are cutting into green wood (or cut them back to their point of origin if the entire cane is diseased). You should see white, healthy pith in the center of the pruning cut you have made. If the pith is dark-colored, prune back further until you see healthy, white cane tissue.

Step 2

Prune canes that are thinner than a pencil in diameter back to their point of origin.

Step 3

Prune any branches that cross other branches or grow toward the center of the plant to increase the interior light penetration and air circulation.

Step 4

Cut the remaining canes back to a uniform height--usually 1 to 2 feet. Leave at least three outward-facing buds on each cane.

Step 5

Remove any suckers growing beneath the bud union on grafted roses. Use a trowel or your hands to dig to the point of the sucker's origin then tear it off. Pruning the suckers at the soil's surface will only encourage more to grow.

Step 6

Coat all pruning cuts with a thin layer of white glue (Elmer's Glue works fine) applied with your fingertip to prevent wood borer infestation.

**** From Straw: The pictures you posted look great !! Pitch is white, healthy. How much to prune depends on how much water is given. Here in my zone 5a, it takes all-night rain to generate a 3 inch. growth. Your bush is at the right height, the only thing needs pruning are the stems thinner than a pencil.

As to prune cross-branches to increase interior lightning ... that applies to my dark & rainy & gloomy zone. But I see zero benefit for a sunny climate, where cross branches help to shade the roots.

I pruned off cross branches on Evelyn, and it didn't benefit much, since the cross branches were the most productive ... sap & water flow easier on a horizontal slant, so my cross-branches produce huge flowers, versus vertical branches don't produce much. That's the logic for pegging (training horizontally to produce more blooms).

As to applying Elmer Glue to avoid cane-borer, I used the liquid one, which was useless. I also used the Elmer glue stick ... I seriously doubt the effectiveness of glue against cane-borers. I read on an old garden site where they recommend to splatter mud (sticky clay) to seal off canes against cane-borer. I think that's more effective, but I would try it first, before recommending to someone else. My mud (alkaline clay) is so sticky that I need a knife to pry that off from my shoes, so my sticky clay is more effective than loamy & loose soil to prevent entry of cane-borers.

Here is a link that might be useful: How to prune rose bushes in Arizona

Hi adi_az: I forget to address the 2nd part of your questions: "Now the temps are 80 Max - 50 Min: Liquid fertilizer is best when it's 80 max. I would use alfalfa-tea, soak alfalfa meal in a bucket and leave in hot sun for a few days. I would NOT use granular fertilizer, NOR salty chemicals at that temp.

If you don't have alfalfa meal then soak equal amount of blood meal to banana peels in a bucket for a few days. Blood meal NPK is 12-0-0, banana peel NPK is 0-3-42 (very high in potassium), plus some cracked corn. whole-grain-corn-meal has 23% iron, 1% calcium, only 2% sodium, plus high in B-complex vitamins that boost plant growth.

If you don't have cracked corn, plus zero rain, and use only alkaline tap water, then used lemon rinds would help to bring the pH of water down to rain level (pH 6 to 5.6). 1/2 used lemon rind is enough to bring 2-gallons of alkaline tap water to the pH of rain water. That's why health food store sells citric acid to help with sprouting. I can't sprout beansprout with my hard-well tap water, but my Mom has neutral city-tap that she can sprout beansprout.

Whole-grain Cracked-corn is VERY ACIDIC at pH 3.5. I soak cracked corn to lower my high pH tap water at 8.5. It's acidity neutralizes the calcium hydroxide in my tap water, and helps roses to bloom in summer heat. NPK of corn meal is 1.6 / 0.65 / 0.4 .... that's better than horse manure NPK of 0.44 / 0.17 / 0.35.

Should I fertilize the plant now using scott's roses and bloom? I won't use granular fertilizer at 80 max temp.

Looking at the stem does the plant look healthy? If not, what should I do to make it healthy? Your stems look great, white pitch means healthy. Healthiest fertilizer in a warm & dry climate is no-salt organics like alfalfa tea, or fish emulsion diluted in water..

The plant was giving big light yellow flowers in summer, but was not looking very healthy. How do I fix it? I would put alfalfa hay on top as a mulch. Alfalfa hay is $8 for a bale, and has NPK of 2.5-1-2. Alfalfa hay is slightly acidic when decompose, will help roses to bloom. When you water on top with your alkaline tap water, alfalfa hay will neutralize it, plus supply nutrients when it decomposes.

My Firefighter rose bush was attacked by cane-borers, AFTER I sealed the pruning cuts with Elmer glue. Since we have tons of spring-rain, the rain washed all the white glue downward to the stem, very messy.

With cane-borers, Firefighter didn't survive that past winter when it got down -30 below zero. If I have to do it all over again, I would seal the pruning-cuts with WATERPROOF caulk, such as siding-caulk, or bathroom & sink caulk. I used my husband's caulking gun to seal the extra holes in the pots (we drilled too many). Those holes were plugged for months, despite daily-pot-watering.

Below is a bouquet of Liv Tyler rose (pink), Firefighter (red), and Versigny (orange):

strawchicago,

Thanks a lot for taking time to give all the wonderful information. I really appreciate your time.