I like that advice. I think your roses will be happier and more graceful left to grow more naturally.

I think Paul Zimmerman is a true expert on roses. It seems to me that his advice is always good!!!

Mr. Zimmerman has
good advise..but at the end of the day do what feels comfortable and right for
you.. I pruned whatever was dead and spindly. I don’t feel comfortable pruning really
low we have a very short growing season

A volunteer from England pruned a whole section of HT's and floribundas in the botanical garden here (Norfolk VA) and instead of peaking in late April it's looking like it'll be well into May.

She seemed to be following her instincts tho; the sections with shrub and ground cover roses were treated accordingly and barely touched. She left the Drifts unpruned.

Paul makes a good point; there's a lot of latitude in how to prune.

JJpeace,

You can't beat Paul Zimmerman's pruning videos. Very instructional they are indeed.

What you may find by pruning up higher on your bushes is that thinner laterals will result. They may not be able to support the weight of the blooms adequately, and bend or break in rain and high winds, more so than if you pruned down lower where thicker laterals will be produced.

Moses

As Nipstress, I think it was, said in a post last year, what we in the cold zones are interested in is canes which are alive. Zimmerman is indeed an expert but keep in mind that he lives in one of the Carolinas. Some of have to take what canes we can get.

I saw a few of Mr. Zimmerman's videos and they are indeed very instructive.

It's interesting that the same pruning rule applies to some hydrangeas. I have 'Annabelle' smooth hydrangea (h. arborescence) and she's known for very large blooms but tends to flop under their weight. I got a very good advice to prune her in a zigzag pattern so that the taller canes with smaller flowers (those pruned lighter) prevent weaker canes with bigger flowers from falling down (the ones that are pruned harder almost to the ground). I'm not sure if that would be a good advice for any roses esp. after reading Moses' good point about laterals, which is different from hydrangeas, but it works on the type of upright growth like 'Annabelle' hydrangeas.

I watched the zimmerman videos & laughed; because I wish I had a choice of how much to prune. 90% of my roses need to be pruned to less than 12 inches each year. I am trying to plant hardier varieties when I can. It would be nice to be able to experiment with pruning & structure techniques. He is very informative though for those who have surviving cane. I also like how easy going he is. I know a lot of people get stress about pruning plants.

One conclusion that I can't avoid reaching is that there are some HUGE differences between how to do things depending upon whether one gardens in a warm or cold climate. It's not just pruning. Cold climate people say to plant grafted roses VERY deeply,burying the bud union even several inches deep. In my climate, that spells "disaster",lol!

bart,I mean no reflection on you, but I keep thinking that European gardeners tend not to understand the harshness of many North American climates. Non-maritime Canada and much of what we in the USA call the Northern Tier states have climates comparable to that of Moscow. The steamy south resembles, I have been told, southeast China, and the cold deserts of the West are not unlike the interior of Asia, except in NA we have more mountain than steppe. Look up "Basin and Range" and you will see what I mean.

Interesting thanks for posting

No offense,Mcnastarana. I'm American, but grew up near Washington DC and have never lived in a cold climate. What shocks me about Italy (and it continues to do so, even though I've lived here for more than 30 years) is just how extremely hot and dry it is in the summer. Also, the days are SO LONG !!! One of my favorite rock videos is RHCP's "The Adventures of Raindance Maggie",which shows them doing an outdoor concert in California in July,at 6:30 PM (supposedly). You can see the sun, low on the horizon ,"where it SHOULD be" I always feel. Instead, here in Italy, in July, in my south-western facing garden, the friggin' sun is still way high up in the sky at 6:30 PM,roasting away as if it were early afternoon. This has gotten a lot worse in the last few years, too; the sun is even hotter than it was before,so these excessively long summer days are pretty excruciating to me.

Russian lilacs (communist lilacs) did not thrive in Alaska. They were bred in Moscow. I would have needed Siberian lilacs. Climate challenges are such an interesting part of this forum. Thankfully, some roses can handle extreme conditions or how would we cope? I don't know how the plants do it. They are very brave!

Sorry guys. I have been very busy looking for contractors to do my garden. I am debating if I should spend over 21k to redo my whole garden. It is very costly. Well I have not prune anything yet believe it or not. The weather over here is swinging like a pendulum. It is cold and rainy. We had rain for almost a whole week. Freezing rain is also expected this Sunday. I will wait and see if any canes survive this.

@jjpeace - for that price are you doing all new hardscaping, patio & paths? Doesn't the weather just suck this spring? At least we won't need to water for a while!

bart_2015,

Your comment on day length in Italy interested me. The length of day depends on the season and your latitude. Right at the equator the day would be 12 hours long. In the summer the further north you go, the longer the days become. And of course in the winter the days get shorter further north.

Rome is about 42 degrees north. Washington DC is 39 degrees north. Los Angeles is 34 degrees north. So a day should last a bit longer in Rome vs Los Angeles in summer...I think 30-40 minutes longer. If you are in northern Italy the difference would be even greater.

jjpeace - if you get the work done give us lots of pics and let us know if you are happy with the contractor! If they are good maybe I can use them too since we live close to each other. I am thinking of getting my entire front done (driveway, walkway, garden) and was curious about what prices would be like. For $21K you must be getting a LOT done and/or very expensive materials (like flagstone). We are looking at simple asphalt for the driveway and some pavers for a soldier walk and the main walkway. We want a birch tree and an old juniper removed, and then to divide up my entire small front yard (maybe 20 feet wide incl the walkway and 45 feet long) into small, accessible garden beds with short faux stone walls (maybe a foot high), a little paved path to walk through it, and a small spot for a bench or maybe a little table and 2 chairs. Was hoping to have the whole thing done for a $10K-$12K range (4K for driveway, 2K for walkway, 2K for path/seating area, 1K for tree/shrub removal, 1-2K for garden walls and moving existing shrubs.)

Well, if you want new stones (the bigger currently popular ones), it will definitely cost you more. My estimate for the front driveway is more than 12k. Mine is a two garage plus wide walkway therefore a three car parking driveway.

The whole package includes switching my current interlock bricks to the backyard for a new patio, paths on the side of the house and a multi level flower bed.

Honestly, I haven't decided yet and it is unnerving because you don't know if the contractor will be good. They may sound great in the interview but you don't really know until the work begins. I need time to interview more companies before I decide. Will keep you posted.

I agree Halloblondie about the weather. Normally I find rain very romantic but now I am getting sick of it...lol. It has been raining for a few days straight and throughout the whole weekend. I think we are getting snow/flurries/freezing rain on sunday. I have decided not to prune my roses yet until the weather warms up. It happen to me one year where I prune early and all the canes died after freezing weather.

mcnastarana ....as another z4 cold climate gardener, I can relate very well to your comments. I live in western WI, about 60 east of the Twin Cities. My prevailing weather patterns come off the Canadian or US Great Plains with no large body of water or mountain range to moderate weather patterns moving thru my area. I've seen temps in the upper 60's at 11 AM & a change in the wind/weather front moving thru dropped the temp to 15 by 5PM. Several years ago, I listened to a NPR talk show with a climatologist as their guest. He identified the 5 major metropolitan areas in the world that had the harshest winter climate, 4 were in Russia & one in the US....the Twin Cities in MN. So rose gardening in my area can be challenging & Paul Zimmerman's advice is ok most of the time but some doesn't always work here.

Jjpeace, I hear ya on finding the right person for the job. We've been burned a couple of times. What I learned from that is to get references and see the actual work that the contractor has done before... like 10 addresses that you can drive by and a few people that you can stop in and visit with about the work. When we had our hardwood floors refinished, we had a choice between not so great but always on time, and fabulous work but never on time and hard to get him going. We picked the second one and 19 years later, people are still complimenting us on our floors. Not every contractor is perfect, but sometimes the flaws are not important because their work is really worth it.

Could you tell me why you are changing your stones out? We are in need of redoing our driveway and are considering stones instead of concrete. My concern is that with our severe winters they will eventually sink. Did you have that experience at all?

I hope you enjoy your home and garden, no matter what you decide to do. :)

Rebecca

In addition to climate, I think pruning also depends on the rose. For example, Chris from New flora advised about pruning Kordes roses that have a tendency to send out long canes. She said to prune low to promote laterals and a more bushy shape with more blooms . I did this this spring and got great results vs the few blooms on tall sticks I had last year. The blooms have not opened so I can't say if they will be larger than last year's because I pruned lower but there are certainly more blooms because of more laterals than last year. Maybe the blooms won't be larger because there are more blooms this year? Either way I prefer more blooms than larger blooms.

@Rebecca I am thinking of switching the stones because part of the driveway has sunken a bit. I wanted to do a patio too and it is cheaper to do it this way. I guess the logic is to have an updated look on the front as well. Thanks for the advice on references.

I am going to leave my roses taller this year because it is not quite often that 90% of the canes survive the winter. I hope to actually see "climbing" roses this year with laterals. Because of the cold and rainy weather, I haven't been able to prune them yet so I will most likely cut/trim the weaker canes out. I will see what the results will be this year.