Yes, the old wood will sprout. As with other hedges you need to prune the top to be narrow than the bottom for lower branches to get enough light for vigorous sprouting and a solid surface to result. For better sprouting use staged renovation, where you cut back individual branches hard here and there, over a period of perhaps several years, rather than doing the whole thing all at once.

Dr. Malcolm Manners prunes his Chinas back quite a bit - at least by half - at Florida Southern College. Last year, he coached me through taking my Comtesse du Cayla from a tangled mess about eight feet wide and seven feet tall to about 3 1/2 ft, leaving nothing but a structure, and told me I could have gone lower. The rose's sap ran for days and it didn't do anything while everything else was leafing out, but ultimately looked the best that it had in years. Interestingly enough, the flowers always scorched after a few hours in the intense Sacramento sun, but they held up much better. I think it was easier for water to get to them by not having to force its way along those long, thin canes. Teas, I think, are a tougher prospect, but he prunes them decisively too. We occasionally have an unknown "volunteer" whack back a Tea in the cemetery, to our great dismay, and they recover. Some Teas, like Maman Cochet, send out right-angled canes when cut and so they are vexing to keep in a graceful shape when you prune them. I've become convinced that most Teas don't have a graceful shape if you look at them closely, but the tangled, awkward mass of internal canes doesn'tt matter much if the outside is leafy and blooming. One thing that Cass taught me is that cutting off a China's lower cane and leaving other canes long and leafy will simply cause that cane to die back or produce very wimpy growth - the plant just shifts its energy into the canes that are already growing. That's why I took CdC down all the way. I think that you can convince the roses to grow upright once again by how you prune, removing some of the lower growth, and doing some "editing" as new growth appears, cutting off horizontal stuff and leaving the canes growing upright. An alternative, though, is to take a rose to a structured shape and let it regenerate. Another alternative is to prop a tripod in the middle and tie up some of the canes into the shape that you are seeking - I've used rebar for that purpose. As Kim said, it's good to experiment. I have found that split canes on Teas often continue to crank out growth and bloom as though nothing happened. Sometimes the cliche "this hurts me more than it hurts you" applies to roses - we think that they need some attention but they are just fine, and it's only our aesthetic judgement that is says there is a problem. Florida's climate and conditions (including the fact that Malcolm's roses are on fortuneana and mine are bare root) are different from Sacramento, and different yet from Italy, but I think that you get enough heat, Melissa, for your roses to make a comeback. Anita

Thanks dan & ken.. Ken, you said to take the largest 1/3 of the branches out as close to the ground as possible. I understand that that's the way to do it, but if I do that I'll still have a very untidy looking shrub with long branches hanging over the driveway...I'd much prefer a more compact shape, maybe 4-5 ft tall. Dan, you said that it would take several years for the pruned plant to grow back to its present size. But what will it look like at the end of this summer? Will it be scraggly and open, or will it look full, but not as tall? Carly

Hi there, I have a beautiful fiddle leaf who had a rough few years. She's definitely on the mend since I repotted her last summer and has rewarded us with lots of top growth and lovely new leaves. I was also able to propagate all of cuttings I took last summer as well. Soon I will have a fiddle leaf forrest in my apartment. My question is when to hard prune her this year. Because of a significant lack of light during the hard years she dropped all of her lower leaves and is now extremely leggy. My plan is to cut all three branches all the way back to the top of the thickest part of the trunk, but I'm not sure when to prune. She seems to love the abundance of sunlight (her leaves have never scorched) and each of the branches just produced 3-5 new leaves in the last two weeks. Since she seems to be doing so well, I'm tempted to prune now and just leave her in the window with the hope that she'll start to back bud and sprout new branches off of the main trunk over the summer. The other option would be to wait until it's warm outside (late May/early June) before pruning and setting her outside in a warm, full sun situation. Any advice on when to prune and if my plan to cut all the way down to the top of the thickest part of the trunk is sound would be lovely. I'm including a few pictures so you'll have a better idea of just how leggy she's gotten.