I normally take established roses down to about 18 to 20". remove anything in the center of course anything Crossing , dead or damaged a vase shape is what you are looking for . anything that is really new I tend to be less severe just to give them a better chance to establish a root system . unless they've just gone crazy like my 1st year Beverly went from a little bitty to about 4' so I took her down quite a bit to and she still went right backup to about 6' within the summer.

I always find this funny my neighbors just hack away at their roses practically using a chainsaw and their roses look fabulous and I know they don't take time to fertilize or do anything other than whackem down and water them and they all look fabulous

so there you go

I only grow own root roses....Shrub type..

New roses I only get rid of winterkill/dead stuff for the first 2-3 years.....

After the first 2-3 years I take em down to like 12"- 18"... Now if winterkill is real bad maybe further down...depends... This season I cut all our roses to ground level...All new fresh canes now...Had a great season!

After Jim's comments, I'm hijacking my own thread here. Many of mine (DA) are budded. I have noticed a few have young new stems from the base (covered by mulch). I dunno if the new stems is coming off the bud union or it's just a sideshoot coming off one of the budded canes.

-- I'm all in on rejuvenation pruning where old ones get cut off old to let the new ones grow -

How does one achieve such rejuvenation pruning when its not own root. ?

Just revisiting/ re-reading this thread. Getting Spring FeVeR here. Usually at freezing temps this time of the year. Todays high is 67...

My new planted BR - most of them are hovering 4-5 feet high. Single sole straggler (munstead) only grew to about 15 inches or so...

I think I'm going to level them off to around 24-30 inches. Want them more bushy than VERT

Don't think in terms of inches, think in terms of bud eyes. If the height of a shrub rose is yours to choose, cut it back to about 3 or 4 bud eyes. The results will not all be the same height, but it gives you an idea of how their relative heights are going to compare.

It is also a perfectly reasonable pruning plan for anything that can be pruned as a floribunda/hybrid tea.

Thx MG. 1st season going into spring. How early does the buds show ? - as I was thinking pruning is best done in dormancy, so all the reserves are used on -waking up -. I have noticed rose blooms pretty early in spring though , so I presume I should be seeing some bud eyes already come late winter ?

Prune when the forsythia blooms.

Thx MG again. But I'll be busy laying down Prodiamine once I see the forsythia in bloom ;-)

... which should take no time at all with a rotary spreader.

close rifis. Got me a new Battery Powered sprayer..

a1an - what kind of battery sprayer did you get? Have been considering one.

I have a question regarding pruning on bareroots from Palatine I planted in November. I live in zone 8, about 2 hours from Houston. All are in pots, starting to put out some nice leaves. Looks like we are going to have a mild winter this year - cold temps but not too many freezing days. I prune at Valentines Day. My question is.......do I prune these new potted bareroots or just let them go ahead and leaf out as they are doing now? Or take off several inches and let them start regrowing their leaves? I am tempted to do the latter, but would like some expert opinions.

Judith

battery sprayer is not for the roses.....it's more for the lawncare. It's a Milwaukee M18 4 gallon sprayer. I would not invest in cordless unless you were okay with batteries. I happen to have alot of said batteries though. As with ANY battery, the life of it declines the minute it rolls off the factory. However, with good battery managment/understanding, once can easily eek 7- 8 years out of the battery

Don't prune NEW plantings Judith - especially since you just planted them like 2 months ago ?. Let the roots establish. I did deadead as each blossoms grew.

Rose newbie here...I haven't done any pruning since August. This has been a warm winter in zone 6b (60F last weekend) and I don't want to encourage any new growth. I noticed my generous gardener and Teasing Georgia are sending out new shoots. I was hoping to do some pruning this weekend. Do you think I should just wait until when "the forsythia blooms"? I guess I am confused if winter pruning and spring pruning are the same thing.

Thank you! I really appreciate this thread.

Yes, they are the same thing, in general. it is too early to prune. Wait for the forsythia. Just a note to say that some do winter prune long canes after they have gone dormant, but I think one can achieve the same thing tying them up.

@Vaporvac Z6-OhioRiverValley, thanks!!

PG -

For woody shrubs....I try to leave them there until late winter/spring to knock 'em down. Partially in my mind, I'm kinda, sorta, thinking - from the exposed ends down, they can dry out. So the more length there is, there more there may be to be `saved' after a long hard winter. The only cavet I can say is snow splaying, but that's a whole different debate I suppose

MG - Thread Brump. ---3 or 4 bud eyes--- ?

Been a fairly warm winter this year sofar. Was eyeballing the roses. Plenty or buds with lotsa bud eyes to be seen (not dormant/flush but buds reading to get going once the weather get's even warmer)