Late winter - early spring and summer encourages regrowth, but not more growth. Pruning always nets less growth than you would've had without pruning. It just looks like more because it's coming out of less tree. Late summer does not encourage regrowth because you remove leaves at a time they should be storing energy in the roots and the tree is not in a regrowth mode. All proper pruning should encourage fruitfulness but may delay fruiting in young trees because you're keeping the tree smaller than it wants to be before it produces fruit. Any improper pruning can cut your fruit production, it doesn't matter what time of year, if you remove all your fruiting spurs/wood you will cut production. I do any major cuts that require a saw in Feb-Mar. I do shear cuts at any time spring to late summer. I've never heard of summer cuts encouraging disease (that would make espaliers disease prone and they're not). I've only heard of late fall causing winter injury (which can cover a lot of different problems) in areas that have harsh winter. I find it easier to see what I'm doing in summer. If I go heavy with shears in winter I inevitably cut off too many flowering buds. Late fall is also good for me since I can still tell which ones are flower buds plus with fewer leaves I can have a good idea of the structure, but since it's not good for the tree here I use string or twist ties to mark what to prune later.

The "live crown" is the percentage of height that has branches that have live foliage. The older and more crowded the trees are the less "live crown" you will have. If you plant the trees 8 X 8 I don't think you should be doing any thinning until the trees are at least 25 feet tall, and probably better 25, unless you really want to clear some paths to walk through. If you thin out trees too soon, you will have them spaced too far apart, and then the trees' branches will be too strong and heavy and there may be more of a tendency for the trees to be "bushy" rather than tall. The only trees you should thin early are poorly formed trees that are clearly crowding better trees, but with the 8 X 8 spacing I don't see this happening very soon. If some trees are forked, I would cut out the fork early--with young trees I think the end of the second year is best if the two sides are really equally competing with each other. But if one is stronger, I would not do anything and the tree will make one of the forks a side branch, and leaving it will mean a stronger tree. If the trees are 8 X 8 I think you should resist any impulse to thin until they are at least 20, and maybe better 25 or more feet tall. If some weaker trees are clearly overtopped, you can thin them out earlier. If in your area you have white pine weevils that kill the leaders of your trees, you have a special problem. You may want to ask your local forest service or ag extension if that is a problem in your area. If it is, that is another reason not to thin too much--a shaded forest floor can reduce the damage. I have white pine weevils, but they mostly affect my Norway spruce, not my white pine. I would not prune off any lower branches until the die naturally from the shading in the stand. I know you want to walk under the trees ASAP and enjoy the stand as it grows, but doing more is really less, if you know what I mean. White pine branches after they die naturally will persist for a long time--20 years or more--so you will want to prune them off. My white pine stands are now between 40 and 46 years old (I have three ages), and I have pruned most from ground level to 27 feet, and some up to 40 feet. I have Azel aluminum bolt together poles in 10 and 6 foot lengths. The longest pole I can effectively manage is 30 feet, but I have done a few trees with 36 feet of poles. Virginia pines drop their dead branches slowly, but eventually they drop off. The trees you describe must be more than 70 years old I would guess if they have pruned themselves naturally to that height. I leave all the branches I cut off and all the trees I cut down (after I limb them to get them to lie flat) for compost to add natural nutrients and organic matter to the soil. After three years the branches mostly disappear. I would avoid any impulse to keep things "neat" under the trees. I know what you mean by the frustrations of trying to do all the woodland work part time. I was a teacher all my life, so I had summers (not the full summer, but 30% of the summer, because I have a wife and another home) in addition to weekends. But I was patient and kept at it. Most of the work I have done for the last 35 years or so is in the 275 acres of hardwoods I have. Sometimes I get more involved with thinning and pruning my pine and spruce groves, but much of that work was done on rainy days and/or in an hour or so after dinner. I couldn't do much at any one time, but it really adds up if you keep at it. As for the Pales weevils--I never treated any of my plantings with chemicals or pesticides of any kind. My losses were bothersome (maybe about 10%) until the forester told me to keep any mulch or pine needles or other debris away from the little trunks of the newly planted trees. This reduced the losses to about 5% or less in places where the weevils were present. But you may need to get some local advice about just how serious the problem may be in your area and what you should do. --Spruce

thanks Karl. That was the information I was trying to figure out. I will get it done in the morning. We planted 8 shrub roses this afternoon and pruned all of them to a degree and it is HOT so I am going to wait until in the morning to attack the Grafted one. It is funny to me that the shrubs I just bought for less than $5 each look better then the Knockouts the landscaper put in earlier this year....at a much higher cost to me I might add. I am headed back to our local Kmart for 4 more to finish edging my parking lot at work. MUCH better than paying the landscaper. I used to grow Dahlias in MA but I had no luck with them here in GA and switched to Roses which I could not grow in MA. I am learning and they are looking good (except that one). The video links were really great as well. Thanks so much!

Azure - the advice above is fine, but I'll be the contrary opinion. I've planted lots of roses in the fall. And summer. If you get those little bands, just sink the entire thing into the ground. In other words, leave the plant in the container. They're about the size of a quart carton of milk, maybe a little smaller. I've used those milk containers as bands for starting plants too - but they don't hold up much more than a year. Anyhow, if you get something in Sept, find a home and sink the entire thing into the ground. The roots on the bands are very minimal and you don't want to disturb them. But they should survive the winter - if you were rooting them yourself, they'd survive. Moreover, don't forget, whoever is sending them to you didn't root them just the week before - they've probably been rooted since spring as if you'd done it yourself. If they don't survive, that implies that you can't root roses outdoors in your area, and that's just not true. Just don't disturb the plant. In fact, you can leave it in the band for the next year too. The roots may grow thru the band but it's no big deal. I do it all the time and then transplant the following fall. Right now I have something I've transplanted into a larger pot but it's surely grown thru that after 3 years - I'll give it away this fall or next spring and it will be fine. You don't have to coddle roses as much as you think. I suppose I'd put the plants in a protected area rather than out in the open where they'll be exposed to drying winds, and you may want to cover - I use the 2 liter soda containers - just cut off the top and pull off the label and you have a nice little rooting greenhouse. When I've done late rooting I just leave those on until late spring. Never lost a plant yet. Your winters are worse than ours here in NYC - a few miles makes a lot of difference. So if you have a particularly bad one, you may lose a plant or two but in many years, I haven't. So while there are no guarantees in life, and you're not going to get blooms your first year anyway, I see little reason to wait. Best of luck.