My instinctive response would be to avoid hard-pruning a newly planted rose, at least if it's a young plant. Leaf-stripping might be ok, though maybe not necessary. And no need to worry about spraying: that is definitely not necessary,especially in your climate! Good for you to want to avoid it!

Not sure why you want to hard prune. Can you post a picture of the plants?

I have climbers that were newly planted and a handfull of 2 gallon shrubs. I will be hardpruning the rest of the rose garden but was wondering if these need leaf stripping in the first few years.

I am not a rose expert but have grown many kinds of roses for many years without ever hard pruning or stripping off leaves. Climbers are sometimes pruned to keep them from waving around in winter winds but yours look well secured. I only prune for shaping or to remove dead canes in spring.

In your mild winter area the main reason for serious shortening of bedding roses would be to control height. If yours all look like the one in your first picture you may not have to do anything in that regard until after a summer has passed. With the climbers you don't want to cut all the canes way back at once or you then will be growing them as short bushes instead of climbers. To get the wall surface well furnished you do want to fan the canes out from the bases of the plants up and not bunch them together as you have them now. The netlike support system you already have in place lends itself to doing this.

Fungus disease susceptibility in rose cultivars is tied to their genetic makeup, with avoidance of specific problems most reliably accomplished by choosing kinds known to be resistant - preferably listed as "immune" or nearly so.

If you do a web search for "las vegas rose society" more than one enthusiast group comes up, with their associated information including cultural practices.

The canes on the climbers are still too young to train out laterally and fan out. I tried and risked snapping them in two. I am waiting for them to grow out a bit and lend themselves to adapt to the new growing style.

I have 20+ old bushes that when pruned hard, grow better. I will just fertilize, deadhead the newbies in the first year and observe if they need mild pruning. I attended a Rose seminar here in LV yesterday conducted by a Rosarian and Master Gardner but she didnt have time enough to address individual questions. The class suggested stripping off all leaves for the newbies in Jan. I thought it would be a shock for such young plants and hence came looking for community experience.

excellent discussion

Embothrium, thank you again for your keen insights. I will work on the climbers. Yes, the rosarian does work to grow exhibition roses which is why the fertilizer recommendations were also commercial. My personal goal is to have a thriving healthy garden and soil for the long term. I inherited quite a dump and have been working slowly on restoring the greenery and pleasantness that a garden ought to have. Since we are not to fertilize in Nov, Dec, Jan and i just planted about 20 roses, i want to make sure i dont overdo or underdo anything.

What are your thoughts on natural fertilizer. I used Neptune Harvest Fish 2-4-1 this morning for the final feed of the roses this year. I also use compost as mulch (from local nursery containing peat moss, cedar bark and other organic material) and have Espoma Rose Tone sitting in the backyard waiting to be used in Spring.

Since you are interested in establishment and maintenance of good soil fertility on your site your best bet would be to employ soil sampling and analysis in order to establish a baseline to work form. Your local USDA Cooperative Extension Service branch office should be able to help with this. After you discover what, if any significant deficiencies may be present than you can select products with suitable nutrient content. And avoid over application of particular minerals. For instance phosphorus is frequently overused on home garden plots, can result in the development of a toxicity that is hard to eliminate (phosphorus leaches extremely slowly).

If you undertake routine fertilization also expect to be sampling your soil periodically, in order to keep track of the situation.

Embothrium, what zone do you garden in and do you mind sharing some gardening rituals and best practices based on your current soil condition. thank you.