The plant will actually grow better if you cut the flowers, because then the energy the flowers need to grow and develop will be redirected to the leaves and roots. Just try not to cut off too many leaves with the flowers since the leaves are needed for photosynthesis.

Some great info here on saving traumatized roses...but maybe I shouldnt admit this...this summer I bought some VERY hardy field grown mature Hybrid T's (Sugar Moon, Yves St Laurent, Barbara Streisand, Grand Dame) climbers (Angel Face, Colette, Eden, Raspberry Cream Twirl, Cloud 10) and a couple nice Grandis and florabundas (Easy Does It, Poseidon aka Neptune, Polka, Fragrant Plum). Each had thick well-branched canes with tops cut back for mailing and arrived with substantial root mass well packed in soil, wrapped in wet paper and encased in plastic..with plenty of new top growth. A few of them (Sugar Moon, Easy Does It, Poseidon, Barbara S) even bloomed within a couple of weeks and were quite lovely even just growing in perforated plastic bags! But a series of chronic ugly calamities all summer...choke...distracted me from potting them up like I planned. (please don't chastise..I'm already drowning in misery!) I did keep them in partial shade and well watered every morning and they were staying quite happy, strong and green with lots of new growth until just a couple of weeks ago when we had our last heat wave here in NJ. I wasnt here to attend to them and needless to say, 8 of the 13 are horribly wilted and going brown fast although the main stems and root canes are still green. I soaked the roots for a day and have them ready for 3 gal pots but I'm thinking I should cut all the brown dead material back hard and bury the green canes and shoots and hope there's still some life somewhere. (One previous comment left me hopeful about the "life left in the canes"!!)Then I'll put them in my little greenhouse for the winter where they'll be protected from the harsh weather. What do you think????? I'm so so sorry because they were such great healthy happy plants when they arrived!! I've learned my lesson, now I just want to save them.

I have my desert rose in a clay pot.. I do not water it until it is dry about an inch down. And cut back on water in winter. It is in a south window and gets lots of light in the winter. It goes out on my covered front facing south after all chance of frost is over. It loses some leaves in winter. I have had it for three or four years. I took a cutting alert it dry out on the end put in spot of regular miracle grow potting soil and it has started putting on leaves.. I would love to try planting from seeds.. My cutting even got water logged and started to turn mushy on the end and I cut it off jammed it back in soil and it started leafing out again. I think over watering is what kills most cactus roses.. I also fertilize with mirical grow and alter with blooms fertilizer in summer.

It is fun. I'm a little addicted to it right now. :) Update: It looks like my rose cuttings in the soda bottle greenhouse have bitten the dust. :( The stems are still green (sort of), so I'll leave them in a while longer, but it's not looking good. The ones I planted in plastic cups and put in baggies are still hanging in there. Those are the Zephirine. I have discovered a good place to put these is on the back of my garden tub, which has a window above it. I hope I'm not cooking them there, but so far they look OK (they've been there about a week). The cuttings I put outside under a soda bottle (same as the cuttings from the soda bottle inside) are still hanging in there too! I've been trading for seeds and cuttings on some of the exchange forums too. :p I'm going to try winter sowing.