I have a friend who just moved into a house with about 100 roses in various beds around the house. Some get only 4-5 hours of sun and others 8-10 hours of sun. When the trees are trimmed the 4-5 will probably get 6-7 hours. There is no sprinkler system at the house so we suspect they didn't get much water all winter except for rain and we didn't get much this winter. Children inherited the house and didn't even water the grass.

The bushes are all for 3-4 ft tall with about 12" of dead wood on the tips of each stem. Most appear to be HT but some look like they may be Floribundas or Shrubs. There is one bed of minis that look pretty sad.

I don't see any sign of them leafing out and certainly no buds.

My question is about pruning. I know she needs to trim the dead wood out but what about pruning back some beyond where the green portion of the stems start? I'm sure there is root damage from lack of water. Should she just prune to the live portion of the stems or go ahead and prune them back about 1/3 beyond the dead stems? Our temps right now are 50-60 at night and 75-80 during the day.

I have her watering them enough to keep the ground moist but don't know what to advise about the pruning as I've never seen roses this bad. In addition to pruning what about fertilizing? We are laying down mulch this weekend so that should help some.