You don't want to have new fresh growth going into winter so stop cutting soon (or now). Also tell the hubby to reach into the plant with hand prunners and cut back branches within the bush. This allows light and air to enter the cavity of the bush and allow new branches to grow. If you continue to "hedge" a plant (any plant) with hedge prunners after while all you will have is growth right at the tips (the outer edge) of the bush and when a section browns up and dies (and it happens) you will have no growth within the plant to take the dead spots place. Hope that made sense. :) Mike

Sylvia while I can't help you identify your rose other than a wild guess of Mr. Lincoln. I would suggest contacting your local American Rose Society they have consulting rosarians that would be happy to come out and look at your rose. They could also suggest how best to prune and fertilize it. the other alternative is you wanna take a, wack at it yourself, is to cut out the three D's ,as Baldo likes to say, remove; dead, diseased and damaged canes. Damaged canes are often damaged because they are rubbing against another cane so removing one will help open up the plant, and in doing so will likely improve and invigorate the rose. Those are the basics but practically every rose book out there will further explain how to properly prune a rose bush there are also a number of helpful you tube videos specifically on pruning.

We need a picture in order to help, it could be any type of cacti, it is almost impossible without one!

It is just old and excessively leggy from reaching for more light. You can cut back hard (I would wait until spring) but regrowth will be slow and of course no flowers for several seasons. But both the amount of shade and its advanced age will have an impact on how well it will do going forward but a well-sited, healthy rhody can live many decades. Deadheading is usually done for aesthetic reasons, removing the unsightly spent bloomstalks and preventing unnecessary seed development. Whether or not it aids in flower set in following years is up for debate - no one ever deadheads wild rhodies and they seem to do just fine without. FWIW, the very old (60+ y.o.) rhodies my garden are simply far too large to deadhead and they bloom profusely each season.