For more info, these are pics I just took in early spring, New England. Last year, all of my rose bushes were blooming like crazy and looked gorgeous, but they are increasingly thorny and the mottled stems make me nervous.

There are some dead and dying canes that should be cut out, but aside from that they look fine. The thorns and mottling are simply from the canes being more than a year old.

Is this New Dawn, by any chance?

in my MI ... most roses were usually cut back to about 6 to 8 inches every fall .. so i could put rose cones over them ... [excluding the monsters, of course]

from what i can make of yours.. they dont look like they were ever pruned ... have they???

and of course.. in doing such.. i disposed of all the ugly stuff every fall ...

where are you.. big city name.. so we might understand what your version of winter is ... new england is a bit vague ...

ken

Thanks, folks, that's helpful. It sounds like I should be more aggressive in my pruning! I am not sure which type of rose they are in one case, but the other two are hybrid tea roses (the other three were there when I bought the house). I am more used to just doing regular perennial gardening and so roses are relatively new to me.