When I first start pruning developing young roses around three years old, I begin by removing juvenile structures to favor the adult wood. Have you ever noticed that young roses start off with twisty, thin, low-growing branches at first? They very much need this wood when they are babies, but as they begin to mature and produce straighter, stronger canes in the form that is characteristic to their variety, you can clean this early-stage wood away. The same is true of young trees, by the way. Trees need a lot of careful shaping when they are young to prevent problems when they are mature.

Then take out any wood that is dead, diseased, or rubs its thorns against other canes tearing their bark.

Once you have done this, think about structure. If you like the form the plant is taking, you may not need to do much more. If you have a crazy cane spoiling the form, you can take it out. Take spent canes down to a bud or a strong lateral. You can shorten HTs by a third, possibly by half depending on your climate. It is severe winter climates that take HTs down to 18"-24". You won't want to be this harsh any place you can successfully grow true Teas. Hard pruning may sometimes be necessary, but it is rough on the plant, Done repeatedly, it can actually shorten the life of the rose. The natural life span of many roses approaches 100 years, but very few roses get the opportunity to live that long.

Prune HP's fairly tall unless they are the naturally short kind, in which case prune them tallish in proportion to their height.

Vintage Gardens used to have a nice tutorial on modern pruning shrubs that I really liked, but it is gone with their website, alas. You might take a look at Paul Zimmerman's series of rose pruning guides. What I like about them is that he has you look at how the rose grows, and what wood it blooms on, and take that as your guide.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLE44663DD03B23A01

I am fairly new to Teas myself. I have found Cass Bernstein's tutorial to be an excellent guide.

http://rosefog.us/PrunedRoses/PrunedRoses.htm.

They prune Teas more heavily in England with great success, but the climate is so different there. Nashville's climate falls between these two extremes, but I would err on the side of caution until you have learned how your roses respond.

With chinas, I would be inclined to treat them a lot like Teas, but I don't grow very many and don't have a lot of experience with them.

Have fun! Pruning is an addictive art form. It is based in part on studying your roses and learning how they want to grow, then releasing them to be their best selves. You might find yourself sucked in. I actually find a freshly pruned garden as beautiful as the spring flush. To me, well pruned roses look elegant and sculptural.

Rosefolly

Thanks Rosefolly, I agree with your thoughts on sculptural roses. I've finally realized that I know how to grow these plants and they NEED pruning. So I feel reasonably confident to do that.

You mentioned Vintage---I refer to the catalog and the growth classifications to help me visualize what a certain rose should look like. I will imitate those "bones". And Paul's videos I need to watch again!

The president of our local rose society told us she was told by the Austin folks to prune our Austins in mid February here in Nashville. So I'm going to try that. Heritage and Jude have finally gotten chest high.

Susan

Have fun!

I happened to be pruning a half a dozen youngish teas today, and followed my own advice. I took off the juvenile twiggy growth of those that had put out adult canes, and that was all I had to do. They look cleaner, but are not diminished in size.