It looks like they would have growing weather through mid-December, which would allow new shoots forced by pruning time to grow out and harden before winter. I doubt it gets cold enough to damage anything but soft growth.

If it were me I'd take them down by about a third, leaving some canes a bit shorter than others so that the bush looks natural and not just chopped into an even line, and that the blooms will appear at different levels. After that I'd water thoroughly and mulch the roses well. I'd advise the lady of the house to pinch off all the buds until the bush has filled out and to make sure to water them often. The softer cuttings I'd cut up and leave under the roses also as mulch. A little natural fertilizer might also not be a bad idea.

Ingrid

Near San Francisco, California where our climate is Mediterranean, I've grown hundreds of roses in a total of 14 classes and I'm always learning that there is always something new to learn about roses. Last year I pruned my neighbors overgrown H.T.s that had only bloomed on the top third of the canopy.
I took only 1/3rd off of those tippy top bloomers. because that is the standard percentage of reduction for Hybrid Teas in our climate. Before I pruned the H.T.s were between 6 and 7 feet tall. I pruned in January because the H.T.s drop their leaves by then and have entered dormancy.
I wish I had taken more off because the bushes grew back that 1/3rd quickly, within 2 months, but they did not begin blooming on the lower part of the canopy, because I had only pruned back there, by a couple inches off of each lateral.
Because Hybrid Teas bloom well on NEW CANE GROWTH, I suggest that you reduce the cane growth from plants that are now:
5 feet tall to 7 feet tall,
and prune back until they are between 3 feet tall and 3 and 1/2 feet tall, because as I mentioned, rosebushes grow back fast after pruning in a Mediterranean climate. Then reduce the laterals off of the lower part of the bush by at least 6 inches, ( more than 9 inches if they are florist cultivars, or very long stemmed roses) to encourage abundant bloom production, and then trim a bit to shape the rosebush.

Because garden rosebushes are "heavy feeders" they require lots of nutrients to grow and bloom well, especially something as hybridized as a Hybrid Tea. The higher the percentage of reduction, the more nutrients they will use to grow it back. I suggest your friends give their rosebushes a good manure and compost mulch in the Autumn, it will break down by spring and help the rosebushes to bloom productively after they've been pruned.

Good Luck,
I think it's grand that you care for your friends' roses.
Luxrosa

Mediterranean climate in Greece is not necessarily the same as Mediterranean climate in California. I don't feel competent to tell you what would be a good idea there. Here I do my major pruning December to February.

Sorry to disagree with everyone who has posted so far, but I think it is quite impertinent of you to even consider pruning your friends' roses unless you are 'begged' to do so.
Would you paint their house if you didn't like the color?

I probably have the wrong end of the stick, but rose pruning/husbandry is very personal. Even when I am begged to help, I explain every cut and get approval for every cut.

And now you can all yell at me because I'm going to bed.

I know some people with tall hybrid teas. They want them tall. They think it proves that the plant is healthy not stunted and diseased. They do not care that the flowers are 7-8 feet in the air. They are used to them that way and it seems natural to them. I tried growing my HTs tall like this. They got less rust because they were thin and tall and away from the soil. The old leaves had fallen off the lower canes and so there was no leaves down there to get rust or blackspot.
However, the canes thrashed around and damaged themselves in the wind. Sometimes they got heavy with flowers and broke. They leaned over and tried to eat joggers passing by. I could never see the lovely flowers I planted them for.

So in the end I compromised and keep them tallish but not sky high like they are right now. I trim in 3 groups. One right now, one mid Oct and one at Halloween. This is so I can have some nice fall roses and if the weather is mean, I don't lose the whole group. I cut them lower around January with all the DA roses. You have to keep up watering and feed the roses to replace the food you took from them when you pruned.

What if you suggested to them that they trim them one year and let them go the other? Either way the dead wood has to go. I wouldn't touch a thing until they sort it out. My guy had a few testy words with me when I divided his sad hungry overgrown orchids into fresh orchid mix. They look fantastic for it now but he was mad that I jumped in just the same.

Of course, I won't touch the roses without explicit permission from my friends! I haven't been back in three years so their gardener may already have pruned the roses or at least taken out dead wood which he never did before. My friends are entirely in the hands of the crusty old gardener they inherited from previous owners of their island place. They tried to make him plant cypresses but he wouldn't because cypresses are cemetery trees in Greece. He is in charge when my friends are back home in Athens so they dare not oppose him. I was asked to bring a Danish tomato variety the last time I visited and the gardener didn't like the idea even though he didn't have to do the planting. He admitted later that the tomatoes were tasty. But I certainly will not be another dictatorial gardener to my friends.

What roses are you growing in Sweden? I have always wanted to visit there. The nearest I got was Denmark. One thing I liked about Denmark was the small gardens in the cities. I know that's private space but every now and then someone leaves the gate open and you could get a small look at the pretty trees and plants beyond. When I went they were harvesting wheat and I loved all the golden fields with the trees in the background. I liked the smell of the air and the clouds. I didn't get to see many blooming roses except at the palace in Copenhagen.

What is it like in Sweden and where would you go there if you wanted to see gardens and pretty countryside? The gardener sounds like the one who used to be in charge of the garden next door. He had to do everything his way regardless of what the owners wanted. Finally, they both passed away and a Chinese couple came in and the husband's mother from Hong Kong changed everything. I wonder if the old gardener says to himself that it's all ruined now because he used to take care of some other properties nearby. Certainly he never liked my garden and never agreed with anything I said when I talked with him. I would have liked to talk with the mom from Hong Kong but I don't speak Chinese. I see her looking at my camellias when she visits her son and daughter in law.

Marianesse, thanks for more explanation, and I hope you get the opportunity to help your friends overcome the tyranny of the crusty old gardener. I somehow missed that part of the story, and I know from all of your posts here that you did not deserve any criticism from me....

Kitty, you can see all my roses on my page. If you come to Sweden you should go to the far south which is where all Swedes look for good rose gardens. It is much like Denmark, in fact some people in the south would much prefer to belong to Denmark again as before 1658. But there are good gardens farther north, too.

landlady, it's quite okay. I know I'm a bit of a busybody but my friends did ask me on my first visit to prune their roses and I bought them pruners, but then the husband got cold feet. I don't think he trusted the future growth of his roses, or me.

The old gardener is not interested in ornamental plants, only vegetables and fruit. We are four friends going down to help our Greek-Swedish friends with the pistachio nuts and the lemons because they can't cope any longer because of old age. The gardener is getting too old, too.

My husband and I are looking forward to this visit, not least because it's 87F in Aegina at present, a dream after a very cold and rainy summer here. (I've ironed all my best summer clothes today, unused so far). The sad thing is that my friends have two grown children who are not interested in this paradise. A daughter lives in Sweden, a son in Switzerland. I am telling my friends that this will change when the children have children of their own. My friends had their children late in life so it may be some years yet. They should keep this house and garden if they can afford it but with the present crisis in Greece with decreasing pensions that may not be so easy. Our five grandchildren have changed the way my husband and I look at our garden. It is such an adventure to them, especially the city kids have a wonderful time in it. I didn't know that I was making a garden for children but apparently I did.

I do some cutting back in early Sept so that the roses are better for Oct, Nov, and Dec. Not a thorough pruning as in January, but by about 30 - 40%. They look far better in Autumn that way.

I got an interest in gardening from my Grandmother. My parent's didn't garden but I loved my Grandma's garden. She grew gardens in Minnesota on the farm she grew up on and at the house she had when she first got married, in Maryland, and when she came to California. My grandfather was in the military so they moved around. She had a flower garden in LA county in the 50s and 60s and later they moved to Riverside County where she grew fruits of all kinds. Growing up, I remember playing outside in Grandmas garden for hours. I have some of her little objects that she put here and there under trees or on the fence in my garden now and my sisters son plays with them like we did when we were kids.

As a crusty old gardener, I'd be very scared!

Best wishes,
Jon

What a lovely thread sprinkled with stories! I haven't been on this board in a while but I really enjoyed reading about people's experiences with crusty gardeners ;)

Mariannese, I used to live in Sweden before and I remember the wild rugosas with all their beautiful hips in the autumn, as well as going mushroom hunting with friends on an island. Wonderful!

Jon, you're a "crusty old gardener" who knows exactly what he's doing. Therein lies the difference. Years ago I once came home to find the "gardener" had chopped down most of my Mutabilis, with what I don't know since every single stem was split into ragged pieces. I cried. Mutabilis, however, undaunted by this cavalier treatment, came back looking better than ever. I love old roses!

Ingrid

I meant I would be afraid *for the old gardener, more than for the roses :)

Best wishes,
Jon

So much had happened since my last visit to Aegina. The old gardener had left some years ago and a new competent gardener, an Albanian, had recently gone back to Albania with his family and was sadly missed. He feared for the safety of his children. The right-wing extremist party Golden Dawn has members on the island who attack foreigners. So my friends are on their own now and are thinking of selling the house, not easy with the present economic crisis.

We four visitors from Sweden and our host spent one day clearing up the garden and orchard, doing as much as we could with the poor tools at hand. The gardener had brought his own tools. Neighbours had complained that the bougainvillea hindered traffic on the street so we cut down everything above the wall but left some of it on the inner side. Some of us took down a dead pistachio tree and pruned an almond tree. We didn't have time to take down other dead trees or prune the olives. We had arrived in the middle of a late heat wave so it was 95F every day. A welcome change for Swedes starved for warmth after a terrible summer but it made working hard.

The roses were left to me but I thought it was the wrong season to do much to them. They were all in full growth so I only took out dead wood, removed rootstock suckers, deadheaded and removed or tied in branches that were in the way along the pergola. Most roses were modern climbers or HT's growing like climbers, except a very beautiful huge Rosa chinensis var. sanguinea. The only other rose I could put a name to was an enormous Peace on the pergola. I didn't know what to do with it and did nothing. It had been planted before my friends moved in but they didn't know the names of any of the roses they had planted themselves either. They did know the names of the 10 varieties of grapes they grow. It was wonderful to refresh oneself with a bunch of grapes between cutting, sawing and carrying prunings. And best of all, to plunge into the cool blue water of the Mediterranean afterwards!

I hope you can put up some pictures! I was working in the garden when it was mid 90s here and yes, it is hard. The roses are under stress when it gets into the 90s so I think you used good judgement. I'm glad you got to swim in that beautiful sea water.

I have been sad for the people there having hard times. They need the income from tourism, but if things get ugly, then more people will stay away. I'm very sorry your friends have the stress of angry people around. I remember the LA riots happened a mile from where my sister was living and we wanted her to come stay with us for a while.

I had a big Bougainvillea once and know how much work they can be. You are a true friend to help out like that.

Although times are harder for them, too, my Greek friends have no fear for their own safety and European tourists have nothing to fear either. It's the refugees and immigrants from non-European countries and neighbouring Albania and Turkey that are being attacked by xenophobic mobs. Their leadership is quite crazy, at one time they preached a return to the cult of the Olympic gods.

I don't know how to put up the few photos I took. I've tried but failed.

MariannneSE, what you do to display pictures on GW is put your photos on a free photo hosting site, then provide a link to them. I use Photobucket, but there are others that work as well.

I can post a link to Photobucket but still don't know how to post pictures in the forum. I will learn more about handling photos.

The red rose is a Rosa chinensis var sanguinea, the yellow is a nameless climber, and the last photo is a bad shot of my view from the roof of my friends' house, looking toward the Greek mainland.

Here is a link that might be useful: Aegina in October