I’m a blossom snapper with thumb and finger. I should say that I live up North and my roses usually winter kill to the ground each year, so I don’t have a whole lot of cane to spare. By the end of the season they are usually 3 feet tall.

Rebecca

I prune to a 5 leaflet where the stem is at least pencil thick also, on a hybrid tea type bush. On all other classes of roses the 'pencil thick,' rule is up to adjustments, usually thinner with floribunda type bushes...certainly the Drifts when dead headed are thinner.

I also try to make the cut where the new shoot will point in a direction that helps maintain the bush's form, not going lob sided.

Lastly, with long stemmed upright growers as many hybrid teas are, especially Meilland roses, I will go farther down the cane than the first 5 leaflet/minimally pencil thick spot, to make my dead head cut. This keeps the bush from getting too lanky. Those who grow Princess Charlene of Monaco know what I mean regarding lankiness.

Moses

I tend to cut back to the 5 leaflet or more if the bush is getting to crazy big, I am looking at you Memorial Day.

I should have taken a picture but I had a thought when dead heading the other day. I have a couple of new canes with large sprays at the top, and the nearest five leaflet is also where another large lateral has appeared. If I take off the large spray at the top I’ll lose the lateral—a lot of the time it just dies back. I’ll see if I kept any of them to take a picture next time but I wonder how more seasoned pros dead those?

I generally prune to a five-leaf cluster. I try to shape the bush, so I am looking for the right five-leaf cluster to have the leaf bud facing the direction I want the new growth to grow.

I prune Morden Blush differently. It will have 300 or more roses to deadhead. I trim it with hedge sheers. I try to retain the bush's relatively round shape.

Morden Blush:

number 1....

Great topic Liz! I deadhead and shape/cut back the bush at the same time. If the rose is very vigorous, I will cut back deeper into the bush to keep the shape they way I want it. I do take care to try to cut to a bud facing the direction I want it to go. For roses that don't get wild, I will look to see where the new growth is beginning to swell, a red point of growth, which is almost always on a five leaflet, and prune there.

I have found that some roses, especially older Austins, need to be cut back by about 1/3 to bloom again really well. As Moses said, cutting back to thicker wood, which produces better flowers.

And, after a rose is finished with a bloom cycle and been deadheaded, I fertilize again!

I appreciate everybody's advice! Clearly, it's not a one size fits all situations.