Judith, I do not know what the golden rule is. But I cut all mine as low as I dare, becaue, believe me by the end of the season, particuarly last, I was getting canes up to 10' hight, not nice. Of course not all were like that, but even my regular roses became taller than I wanted!!! Somebody else masy have the golden rule of thumb!!

Golden Celebration and Glamis Castle come to mind.

Last year I moved some taller growing roses to the back of the bed. So I'm leaving them tall when pruning so they will show up more.

The ones in the front I'm pruning to be shorter and fuller. I may still have to move from.

So I'm tailoring my pruning mostly to the height I want the rose to be, based on how the rose grows. To me, it doesn't make sense to have a tall growing rose in the front and to have to constantly cut it down.

I'm still up in the air on Heritage. It shot out some monster canes. I cut it back very hard (mostly out of spite on my part, I admit) so I'll see how it goes.

Please excuse the hijack Judith. I always wonder about the reputation Brandy has gotten.

She is ultra tender? Brandy survived a couple winters back in the 90s when I refused to winter protect roses.

Brandy is stingy with blooms? She gives us 3 to 4 dozen blooms per flush. Turnaround time is good, 5 to 6 weeks.

The bush never looks nice/is always awkward looking? The only year she looked awkward (out of 11 years) was my fault. I didn't notice cane borers had gotten to an entire side and wiped out that section early in the season.

Brandy resents hard pruning? She starts each spring less than 12 inches tall in our yard.

Brandy has been such a good rose for us that I usually just ignore anything said about her. Better submit this before I go ahead and delete it.

Digger, your photos of Brandy are fabulous!! You sure debunked the myth of Brandy needing high pruning. I read this somewhere, it stuck in my mind. I have a question for anyone about Benjamin Britton. The rose is very healthy, puts out tall canes, but is not a great bloomer. I am going [today] to move it where it gets more sunlight, this may be the problem. I was told to whack it down by half, that didnt work, so going to try more sunlight. Was wondering how this rose bloomed for others and what pruning techniques for it are. Thanks!
Judith

The reputation is widespread Judith. I can't think of another person that has posted experiences with Brandy that are like ours. That is the reason I wonder :) A friend liked our Brandy so much she got one too. Her Brandy is almost as nice as ours.

Brandy at InternetMontana is a link to our old site. I haven't updated it in 4 years. All the pics were taken with our little 1.3 mp Olympus 360. You can see Brandy just keeps doing nicely in spite of the cold winters and hard pruning. Sterling Silver is another rose that isn't supposed to take hard pruning well. SS is more tender than Brandy is. We are lucky if there is over 6 inches of live cane in spring. The rascal gives us a nice bush every year.
I'm not saying the stories about them are myths. I'm sure folks that report it are being accurate. I'm just pointing out that ours do fine in spite of hard pruning. I do admit that I sometimes wonder if Brandy does so well here because she gets pruned so hard???

Bewitched, in case you have it, does not like pruned low. It will not bloom till it reaches 6' or more, so I don't prune it lower than 4'. I had the same experience with Queen Elizabeth.

Digger, Is your Sterling Silver grafted or ownroot?

estrellabux, it was grafted when planted in 1998. The bud union was buried and SS has put down some of its own roots, at least on one side of the bush.

I hope our Bewitched doesn't read this thread :)

I dont have Bewitched, but do have Queen Elizabeth, new this year. I have some recollection about Medallion not liking hard pruning either, and I just bought it.
Judith

Well, I pruned everything in my garden this year to 18 inches or less (some down to the bud union) except the once-blooming climbers and Crepuscule. We will see.

It depends on what you want from the rose. If you want long stemmed HT flowers prune hard. If you want a rounded shrub shape prune higher and leave more canes (I leave 10-20 on my shrubs). Then as was mentioned above prune some higher or some lower depending on where they are in your landscape. I go from three to five feet.

I worry far less about what kind of rose, or which rose it is and focus my pruning on what I want to the rose to be in terms of shape and height. If it gets to tall during the season then cut it back when you deadhead or after the first bloom flush.

It is a waste of time to prune Mr. Lincoln too low. It will grow fast and hard to 8-9 ft no matter what. I get more blooms if it puts less time into growing and more into blooming. I prune it higher than my other HT's. I leave it at about 3 ft, and the others are 12-24 inches. Kathy

Alameda,
Rayford Reddell has written that Medallion prefers hard pruning. He writes from a California perspective, so perhaps its a zonal thing.