General rule of thumb is its ok to prune when the forsythia blooms, so it's a little early

It must be El Nino. Over here in the East the Ground is frozen. I took all the wind blocking material off. I haven't pruned yet. All 20 roses came through. I have a Mr Lincoln made it through the winter to the tip with winter protection. I just removed the leaves from my other 20 roses. They had winter protection for 45 days which consisted of wind blocks filled with leaves from Jan 5 to March 5. The Knockout just had a wind block next to it.

Pam I tried having a talk with my roses about early spring warm ups. They aren't listening. I was out all day today and had a good look at everything. I've already pruned off all the really black dead stuff. I started regular pruning today as my roses have started to leaf out. Even moved a few roses today. I can't believe the ground is not frozen here at all. I'm not exactly stimulating early growth since they are already growing.

Forsythia is blooming now over here - oddly my own forsythia which is in a north facing part of my fence is just budding out but not blooming yet. That part of my fence gets no sunlight from November until April

Patty...thanks for the input! We are going to be mid to upper 60s all week... Things are popping! I'm just going to use my own instincts and like you prune down the black stuff...or whatever I think is needed!

I'm going to wait until the forsythia blooms to prune but the roses are already leafing out without my help like they do every year when the weather warms...lol... Winter was basically so mild overall almost all our roses have canes green to the tips... Hardly any black stuff on canes at all!... First year this ever happened since I started growing roses and I like it!

Jim, roses look the same here. A lot of them didn't loose all their leaves! It's 24F here this morning, supposed to be 42F today and the forecast for the next two weeks predicts all morning temps above 32F! My forsythia isn't blooming yet but with the weather predicted should pop out any moment. I am off work tomorrow afternoon and am going to start pruning and then do a dormant spray this weekend. I have really been looking forward to this!!! Pruning marks the beginning of the season!!

Sharlene

I agree folks... practically no black canes, bands planted in the fall hardy to the tips lol, incredible, I did chop my huge bushes in the front yard bed (6 roses in this bed) down to the ground to renew them.

I cut my Roseraie de l'Hay to the ground to renew it also. After damaging it so bad last year she needed it.