Sure your bushes will eventually shed all of last year's foliage. Leaves only live so long, and even if undamaged, and even if they lived a charmed existence, off they eventually fall. Usually, when a dormant rose bud is pressed into service and an old leaf is still attached to the stem right below it, that enlarging, swelling bud kind of nudges the old leaf away, and it falls to the ground.

I think you still need to prune back your bushes so that apical dominance does not cause the smallest buds at the outermost tips of last year's grow to take precedence in flower bud production. Then you will have lots of small blooms that are poorly supported on thin stems. How far back is up to you. IMHO, I would prune to where the remaining stem below your cut is thick enough to support the new flowers produced, but not too far back on a stem where flower production would be reduced.

I would opt out of leaf stripping at this time, especially since fresh, 2026 season growth, is under way. There's no sense in taking a chance of knocking off fresh, emerging growth....growth which seems to be attached to the stem from which it is emerging by a thin hair.

Moses.

Rosylady, I grew Teas for many decades and never defoliated them. They didn't really go dormant here. I didn't prune mine much either, mostly not at all, but i did hear of a woman who pruned hers like hybrid teas (because she hadn't heard differently) and her bushes produced larger blooms. I know lots of people disagree with hard pruning Teas. The only one I grew of the ones you have was possibly Baronesse de Snoy. I bought it as Triomphe de Luxembourg, I think, but then read that it was probably not.

I don’t defoliate. We seldom have freezes here. My situation is similar to Titan’s.

I have about 14 old tea roses here growing in a Mediterranean climate, zone 9/10. I do not prune them at all, except when they try to take over the: Lawn, driveway, paths, or sidewalk. Then they just get trimmed away from whatever it is they are trying to eat. I have never defoliated them - they do that themselves. Sometimes I may trim an extra active one which is trying to completely smush another rose bush. They love our climate! I feed them once a year, and otherwise leave them alone. We inherited some which were planted by my DH's grandparents and great-grandparents. We researched old old photos, and some of those were 80-100 years old when we moved in. We have lived here almost 40 years - the old old ones finally died, but I rooted cuttinhgs of all of them, so we still have them in the garden. I try to keep more than one clone of each of them growing. Relax and enjoy them! I am so glad you are planning on doing that.

Jackie

Moses....I agree with your strategy for modern roses. I've even applied that strategy to these old tea roses to some extent: I pruned them to fit into a lager bed of roses and not crowd things out. It worked pretty well. But now the bushes are so big, I just don't feel comfortable pruning them so hard anymore. I am going to experiment this year and see what happens!

Titian....it's good to know that hard pruning can still "work" if that's what I need to do to keep the tea roses in check. I knew that planting them in a formal rose bed was not optimal, and that eventually they would take over. I am ready to let them be their natural selves...I can move the other roses that are getting swamped.

sylvia....thank you! Unfortunately, the guy who is helping me defoliated them when I wasn't there :) But next year, we will just leave them completely alone.

Sheila....I was fortunate that the first tea roses I ever saw in person were are the Sacramento City Cemetery, so I know how big they can get...and how glorious they look when left natural! I put my teas in spots where they could get big if I let them, but I will have to move the smaller roses around them to make space. My helper removed all the leaves after all, but we have not pruned them at all. I can't wait to see what happens! They are starting to lean toward the sun, and I thing they will gently flop over soon, in a nice way. Then they will turn into my dream: a heap of roses :) I have the book about teas....I will read it again! It's been awhile. I wasn't sure how teas would do here in very cool western Washington. Mrs. BR Cant would never open up! But these four are doing very well.

jacqueline....thank you for your sage advice. I hope my teas will become family treasures some day:) How wonderful that you had the foresight to take cuttings! I, too, have an old house. Mine was built in 1919. When I got here, there was a 'La Marne'. That was what got me into old roses. So fun, and endless hours of enjoyment researching and learning how to care for old roses.

We never have.