I have an old Black Knight that is sited in my front garden near the driveway and street growing under pretty challenging conditions - full sun, dry sandy-ish soil, exposed to severe northwest winter winds. The thing is doing great! I am very pleased with how this particular cultivar performs as we are close to the borderline of hardiness for Buddleia in our zone and this is not a sheltered location at all. The Black Knight grows about 7 feet tall each season, which is tall enough as it is - can't imagine how large it would grow if it wasn't cut back. I cut it down sometime in April when the new shoots appear from the old wood. Just above the green buds so it's about 12-16" high. I also thin out some of the weaker or dead stems and maybe even remove some of the shoots. Btw, I also have a Pink Delight which is not as vigorous so I don't usually cut that one down as low as the Black Knight. Here's what it looks like this Spring after it got its pruning -

Dale........ When I first started growing miniatures, it was in southern California where there is no real winter. Since then, I have moved to the mountains of northern California. The first year I moved here, I was gifted with more than 60 miniature and miniflora roses in April 2004. Since I was working on the house I just purchased, I potted the roses up in the largest pots I could find because I didn't know a thing about over-wintering roses and figured that it would take longer for soil in a large pot to freeze than a small pot. It turns out that was a very wise decision. Some of those roses have been in pots for four winters. So far, I haven't lost one rose to winter even tho'temps have gotten down to the low teens one winter. (Most of the time we can expect low 20s) All of these gift roses came in 2" to 4" pots and, like I said in my other post, I just put those tiny little plants into the big pots. The roses were full size by the end of summer. Then I had to learn about over-wintering roses in pots because I didn't have time that first year to plant anything. I suggest a spring order. Now that I have experienced over-wintering roses in pots, I know it's easier to work with a plant that has already developed a root system. You can pot up in your new roses in smaller pots than I did, if you plant to put the roses into the ground in the fall. Mad-gallica - Micro-minis might get lost in the grass, but I have tucked them into the rose bed in front of larger roses and they can really add to the look of the bed. I have also planted them in a cluster of small plants in one bed and it seems to work. There are miniature roses that can grow to 5' tall... those plants do not get lost and can be quite lovely. And, of course there are roses in both the miniature and mini-flora classes that are taller than the micro-minis and shorter than the big mini roses. Deb and Dave Boyd, who often post here, have a garden listing on HMF. You might want to check out some of his photos of minis. He grows several of my favorites in a zone that is similar to yours. Lyn Here is a link that might be useful: Deb & Dave Boyd's Garden on HMF

Gary, the outer layers, which are bright green, are phloem (bark), and then when you go deeper you get to the beige-white layer which is xylem (wood). You want to cut into the wood a bit, but not too deeply -- maybe 1/5-1/3 the thickness of the stick, depending on the thickness of the stick. Some people then carefully remove the wood, but I never do (and commercial Florida budders never do) -- just leave it in place when budding the tree.

Hey Jim. I'm in North West Georgia and we usually don't have harsh winters and I still have several months of rose growing and freezing temps aren't usually until November if then. These are 4 year old Abe Darby who grow like crazy too but I have others I was going to prune back but wanted to do these now.