They'll be fine and bloom normally. I have several close to a road that gets lots of plowed snow. Being on top of a slope they're also exposed to winter's cold drying winds. I pruned them today and several were pruned to 4-6 inches, a few less. I still expect bloom at my natural time, late May/early June. Relax!

Update on the roses. Nelson, I really do apologize for not responding to your jibe about my Don Juan, up nawth or down heah. That strong boy is down heah in Mobile. It is making a big show for me this spring, as is Joseph's Coat. And my two Zepherine Drouhans, either side of an arbor over the fence gate, must have realized I intended to yank them out if they did not bloom.....and both of them were loaded up with nice big hot pink blooms. So reprieve for them. I'd already purchased two AMERICAs and one NEW DAWN and one MADAME ALFRED CARRIERE in case I had to fill in their spots. Those 4 plants overwintered in a big tub of fine grade soil, and were in bud before they ever reached the ground. I also bought a red double Knockout. I think the other red one I have is just a Knockout, not double. I found a yellow one, which fades to cream as the bloom ages, and of course the single lighter pinks. Most of these roses I put in a new bed on a clay-based hillock near the street, where they get sun all day long but are shaded late afternoons. They are already blooming their little hearts out. Yes, the Knockouts are good. They make even a rose klutz like me look good. People look at them and think I am a real gardener! The rose bed I created about a year and a half ago in Mobile has 5 Italian cypress in it, alternating with some low dwarf Korean boxwood Green Velvet I think...Green something anyway. It is a double sided bed, since no fence is behind it, and I made it to look like it could be mine or my neighbors, if you get the idea. It is hugging the property line. And in the front I have along the flat laid old brick border, rosemary officinalis...only lost two plants. At the street end of the bed, where I made a bulbous round termination, I bullseyed a fairly tall Natchez crape myrtle...which is of course a white bloomer that gives its all for 110 days according to the information I read. Here is a photo taken a couple of weeks ago looking down the rose bed from the street: I bought two J&P roses last year. I hope they come back strong. One, SWEETNESS, is a tall lavender showgirl, a grandiflora, and it is unique. The STRIKE IT RICH is a rich yellow-gold, and it looks somewhat damaged still, don't know if it will make the cut this year or not. I've decided not to feel obligated to keep a rose in my "collection" if I have to coddle it a lot. Either it earns a spot in the starting lineup, or it goes to the bush leagues. One I'll always keep, because it was my son's favorite, is the Don Juan. Nothing can be more beautiful than its bud swelling and popping open, so red it is almost black. I think of him when it blooms on Mother's Day.

I'm probably not the one to advise on how best to prune roses. My strategy was dictated primarily by the fact that we need to get over them with a ladder to clean the gutters this spring. That said, I cut the knock out back from >5 feet to ~3 feet, all canes included, but the oldest ones that were getting woody got pruned back farther to open up the shrub. I don't think I pruned it anywhere near that hard the first year or two, though.

Here's a recommended pruning regimen for KO roses and the one I'm using: --Prune in late winter or early spring, while the plant is still dormant. Remove any dead or damaged wood, do a little shaping if necessary, and take out some of the interior stems to improve air circulation. Every 2 or 3 years remove about one-third of the old branches to stimulate new, fresh growth. If you are trying to keep the roses at a certain height, you can cut them back hard with hedge shears. No need to worry about usual rose pruning rule of cutting back to an outward facing leaf bud  just lop them down to the desired size-- They can become quite tall, if you fertilize after each bloom cycle, as recommended, so I am snipping off all of the tall, upward facing stems and shaping them into a low 2 ft. high mound. I started last weekend, when we had a couple of nice, warm days, but only finished about half of them, before being hijacked for another chore! Will finish them this weekend, after the snow melts! :