Remove the old leaves and flower buds. Remove any cane sections that are damaged including areas of black bark and shrivelling. Now that your plant is established, you probably should remove any twiggy growth, less than 3/16. Make pruning cuts just above a bud eye (located at every former leaf juncture-- a bump with a smiley mouth under it). If parts of the plant don't support strong growth in late May, the canes have invisible freeze damage and should be cut back.

You might prune around 2 weeks before the average date of last frost. Ask experienced local gardeners. Remove the old leaves now because they may carry fungus disease.

Sounds like it is doing fine without winter care. Don't prune in fall. Whether or not to add a 12" mulch or pile of soil is a judgement call depending on whether this variety is in danger of freezing out in your climate. At least wait until temperatures approach zero. If there is deep snow cover, that gives substantial protection.

Thank you Michael, I really appreciate you taking the time to help me. Tomorrow is going to be a beautiful warm day. I'll remove all the leaves and flower buds then. Just for clarification, should I just cut the leafy stems near the canes and leave the canes until I approach my last frost date? Also, how do I distinguish between twiggy growth and suckers?

You can just strip the leaves, or cut if you wish. The reason for waiting till late April to prune is that pruning may stimulate new growth from low on the plant that would freeze at around -4 C, for hardier roses.

Twiggy growth is anything thin. Suckers are unwanted shoots such as those from below the graft on grafted roses, or offsets by which certain roses try to take over the world. I wouldn't worry about suckers at this point.

Excellent! Thank you very very much! Happy gardening ;)
Tammy

In my zone 5a I prune in early to mid April depending on how much new foliage growth is on the bush, if any. Waiting for foliage to appear gives me a better look at the winter damage and/or how much to remove. I avoid pruning too severely or not enough this way.
There is no magic date as our weather is not dependable. Warm springs temps can lead to early foliage growth being damaged by a severe freeze so premature pruning can often result in foliage loss if pruning is done too early.
April seems to be a toss up regarding severe cold snaps.
In your zone I'd wait until late April or early May to prune or be prepared to cover your bush if a freeze occurs.
Although an Explorer cane can survive to minus 40, the foliage is not so lucky.

Thanks for the info Karl, it is very helpful. Michael, I've stripped all the leaves now, it looks cleaner and a little less sad. The thickest and tallest of the canes is black though, along with 2 other small twiggy canes which I'll cut right down in a few weeks, but I'm hopeful the thick one will miracleously come back to life. Does black mean dead?

In my experience, black always means dead.