For one thing pruning out the dead wood keeps the center of the rose open to air flow which helps keep disease down. It also prevents a lot of crossing or rubbing canes which can lead to damage and entry points for other types of diseases. An open center also allows new wood to grow straight and strong instead of bent. Another reason is just for the looks of the plant. A rose full of dead wood isn't very attractive. So I think there are a lot of good reasons to keep the dead wood cut out.

Some canes will die back because the rose decides the cane no longer produces enough food to compensate for the amount of energy it takes to keep that cane alive. It may be an inner cane that is now too shaded and no longer producing a lot of nutrients. Or perhaps it has some type of unseen damage that has reduced its ability to feed the plant. Also if the root ball has been compromised it may not be able to support as much top growth and will shed some canes. A plant will only keep the amount of top growth it feels its roots can support.

I knew there were other reasons to prune out dead wood, one of them being cosmetic reasons. I've just been hesitant to prune my roses (new rose grower, only been doing it for almost two years), especially the way the pictures show where the rose is reduced to 6 or so stumps. Most of my roses don't even have 6 strong canes yet.

Another question about pruning. I know crape myrtles aren't supposed to be "topped" because it ruins their natural growth habit, but isn't the kind of pruning that is done on roses almost like topping (at the extreme end, apparently pruning roses with a hedge trimmer straight across the top in half gives the same results as all the complicated rules of pruning)? I can rationalize that people wouldn't prune that way if it ruined the growth pattern, but does anyone have pictures of their roses before and after a hard prune so that I can see that pruning doesn't ruin the growth habit? Thanks.

If you have a young rose, it's recommended you only dead-head for the first 3 years. You can also do some light pruning: remove dead, damaged, or crossing canes. It sounds like you can wait another year to let the roses bulk up before trying any heavy pruning.

Also, how hard you prune depends on the type of rose you have and what you want from it. Do you want big blooms on long single stems off a hybrid tea? Or does bloom size not matter? Do you want a climber to climb up a pillar or a trellis? Do you want a shrub rose to look full and rounded?

Does this vary for a grafted hybrid tea?

Be careful about using a hedge trimmer on some roses. Some hybrid teas do not respond well to it. Shrub roses, floribundas and any other bushy type roses do okay. Also when you use a hedge trimmer go slow or it will chew the ends of the newer growth. That will cause problems as the ends are not cut clean but damaged. Stand carefully balanced in front of the rose bush, hold the trimmer stead and slowly move it across the rose bush making an arch shape so it will grow into a rounded bush top removing about a third down. . It has been proven that this type of pruning works as well as careful pruning. Careful pruning needs to be done by hand if you want to remedy the shape of a rose or cut out only a certain portion of a cane.

I wasn't thinking of using a hedge trimmer, but apparently it is the same, which is interesting. I had read something about not pruning heavily early on, which is why I was so reluctant, but I am at least pruning out dead wood. Some of the roses have whole main canes dying back, and some have no dieback at all. Hopefully they all shape up. I noticed that some of the dead canes had been dead so long that when I tried to prune them from the crown, they broke clean off, so I didn't have to worry about scarring the other canes.

Vaporvac,

I would say the 3yr rule would still apply to grafted HT's because the bareroots have very little root (food storage) to start with. I think it also depends on how vigorous the top growth is. I would still wait at least two years to let the plant establish a good root system so the plant has a better chance of coming back in the spring. When I first started growing roses, I pruned my first young HT heavily because that's what I had read to do (before I found out about the age thing), and it died after the the 2nd time I pruned it hard. I don't even get below freezing here. Now I only do heavy pruning if (1) the plant is not blooming well, (2) the canes are thick/large enough to store a good amount of food post pruning, and (3) I know it's had a good amount of time to grow a good root system. I still try to leave a good amount of cane for food storage.

Superteeth, you might enjoy Old Garden Antique roses. Often, they don't want pruning and can grow into large shrubs which look so graceful and natural. Antique Rose Emporium is a great resource for these roses. This way you won't have that stumpy pruned look. HMF has multiple shrub pictures of these varieties.

I have two roses from ARE, one of them is a polyantha that is growing all over the place (and actually rooted herself, when I've failed to root probably 50 cuttings so far), and another is Reine des Violettes, which appears to want to be a climber more than anything. I really should look at the growth habits of roses before getting them...

Some of us love the "all over the place" look. I think it helps so much to see those whole plant photos on HMF. Space is a big factor for sure, besides taste. In my case, I prefer the naturalistic look, and do have room. Others are working hard to keep plants tidy and not "overgrown". I wish I were able to visit ARE sometime at peak Spring bloom.

Super Teeth, do you know which polyantha you have? I'm looking something that will spread.

Yeah, it just so happens that the polyantha (her name is Katharina Zeimet, vaporvac) is in a small bed in front of the house. If I planted her in a different place she would have tons more room to spread. By the way, vaporvac, if you want a rose that will spread like crazy (I'm talking about like an octopus), there's Flamenco Rosita (AKA Ivor's Rose). Her spread is listed as 11'+ on HMF, and at not quite two years of age mine is spreading about 8 feet.

Thank you, Superteeth. I'll be needing some spreading ones soon as I have a lot of space to fill. I've been eyeing up both KA and FR for a while now. Lilyfinch raves about her FR.