To me it depends on the rose. Most grafted roses purchased locally in fall were bareroots left over from the previous January. If they weren't pruned at the nursery, they could probably use a trim now. Since each cane that grows out is a little smaller than the cane it grew out of, the weak, spindley growth will either produce blooms that bend/break the stem or they'll be too small to produce bloom. While some roses are notorious for nodding blooms, it isn't a trait often appreciated in a HT or Gr, lol. Do remove the oldest leaves as you'll notice many of them are yellowing anyway. If you don't want to prune off the newest growth, don't. You'll deadhead it off after the bloom anyway. The spot where the leaf meets the cane will harbor powdery mildew spores, over-wintering pest eggs and spider mites. Getting air and sunlight to those areas, and maybe a dormant oil spray or fungicide/pesticide, can cut down on your spring garden problems. While I don't spray during active growing season, I do use a dormant oil spray in winter. While Consulting Rosarians won't always agree with each other on certain aspects of rose growing, they are correct in saying that January is major pruning month. Exhibitors may wait until February to prune their show roses and others pruned between Christmas and New Years but when talking to novice rosarians, they'll tell you 'January'. All that said, I've got a CL Iceberg I haven't so much as dead-headed in 2-3 years because I'm still waiting to see if it's EVER going to climb. Right now it's just a short fat bush full of blooms. Both the Rose Society of Green Valley and the Tucson Rose Society are awesome places to learn rose culture. I'd strongly encourage you to attend the free public pruning demonstrations they hold at their meetings, local nurseries and public rose gardens.

Prune after the 15th of September and only take off about 1/4 of the bush. Your cuts should be at a slight angle about 1/4" above an outward facing leafset (bud eye) and removal of any dead canes. Usually you would be removing any crossing canes, also, but you might want to wait until the hard pruning time in January before taking very much off...breaking you in, so to speak. All debris needs to be raked up and disposed of and a light application of rose food and chelated iron added to the top 2" of soil, watered well before and after application. It's a good idea to remove the dead leaves in September but not ALL the leaves. You'll do that in January. Here's the instructions for the winter/January pruning. In January, prune off as much as 1/2 to 3/4 of your bush height, leaving 3-5 good, strong canes. In September, we prune lighter....about 1/4 of the height. This is specifically for hybrid teas older than 2 years. For newer plantings, take off less. I'm hesitant to prune my roses right now because the daytime temps are still over 70 degrees and they think it's spring! I'll prune my bushes that are out of bloom or those that have already bloomed then wait to prune others until the end of their bloom cycle....before Feb 15. Within 6 wks they'll have leaves and within 8 weeks they'll have buds. If you have floribundas, grandifloras, shrubs or climbers to prune, plan the following: floribundas & grandifloras.....cut below the candelabras (one cane with many stems) This may be 1/2 the bush, maybe less. shrubs...once-bloomers are only pruned after they've bloomed, usually June. Perpetual bloomers, for example, David Austins, are pruned to about 1/2 size with crossing canes removed. Climbers...these guys need a good two years in the ground before they get a major pruning but after that, plan to take as much as 1/2 but tie the canes so they flow horizontal, allowing for vertical stems that will produce your new growth. All leaves off, all bushes. Rake up the mess and put in trash, not in compost. The summer instructions are water, water, no food, afternoon shade and more water. The spring instructions are water, feed, water, spray for bugs, spray for powdery mildew, water. For more information contact MoRoseAZ on our AZ Forum -- MoRoseAZ is a Consulting Rosarian in the Phoenix area and a member of the AZ West Valley Rose Society, Mesa/East Valley Rose Society and American Rose Society. She's always happy to help with rose questions. Thank you for the information MoRoseAZ!

Pics of my cut down perennials in February Hi Robin, The “correct” answer is—it really doesn’t matter with most perennials! There really (really!) isn’t a right or a wrong time for most! Zach prefers to leave the old foliage on his until spring, but I cut mine down as soon as I have time after everything’s frozen. I “live” in my family room, which is on the lower level—just above grade—of a tri-level and has two BIG windows that look out to virtually all of my perennials. It’s wonderful to be able to see, constantly, what’s “blooming now” in summer, but in winter it looks like a Brown Jungle if I leave the olde foliage on them! One year I didn’t get anything cut down till early spring and it was just a nasty brown jumble all winter. Ever since then I’ve been sure to get, especially the tall, obvious stuff cut down early. And I REALLY need Garden Time in winter, and here in Denver we always have beautiful warm days when I can get out and be “doing” in the yard! In the last week I’ve been out in shorts a couple times! Ahh, Colorado! Since the recent “switchover,” I’m not posting pics anymore [unless they get around to letting up post thru our hosting sites], but I found an old thread that shows my main perennial bed by my back fence, and the strip of perennials right along the back of my house, in February. Those pics were taken in ’08, but it looks the same right now! In the ’08 pics the two things that hadn’t been cut down yet were the Panicum ‘Heavy Metal’, and the blue fescue, both ornamental grasses that I leave, as long as they don’t get too smashed down, for winter interest! They’re both still out there this year too! Check out the thread I’ve linked and my 4 pics are about halfway down! The pics aren’t clickable anymore, so you can’t make them bigger anymore to see more clearly! And the bottom of that post is cut off because of the new, current, length limitations! But at least the 4 pics showing everything cut down made it! There are a few things, especially new things if they might be marginally hardy in my zone, or if they were planted really late but were still actively growing when planted, that I leave the dead foliage on for a little bit of “protection.” Dead foliage can really help “collect” snow around plants, and snow is an excellent insulator, so if something is questionable, I sometimes leave all or part of the dead foliage until spring for that purpose. If they make it fine that year, the second year they get cut all the way down. Some people mulch “marginal” plants with a wood mulch (or something else), but I don’t like to cover up the crown that completely, so I rarely do that. If you decide to wait till spring to cut them down, don’t wait TOO long! For things you cut down in spring I recommend watching very closely for when the new growth starts and cut them down as soon as they start growing. The bigger the new growth gets, the more likely you are to damage it when you’re trying to cut out the old stuff. That’s if you cut them “all the way” down! If you leave some of the old stems/foliage on just be sure you cut them before the new growth gets up to the height you plan to cut at. I’m some kind of a Whacky Neatnik, I cut mine down ALL the way, so anything that didn’t get cut earlier gets cut just as soon as it starts to grow. I just like the way they look better if all the old brown foliage and stems are gone—and, again, I’m looking straight out at them all winter! And I also cut them all the way down because when they start growing again the following year I want to be looking at only new green stems, I don’t want a bunch of last year’s brown stems interfering with my “perfect garden” (who am I kidding!) image! So try some different things, and see what seems to be working best for you. What town are you closest too? I don’t recognize Greenhorn Mountain. And did you used to post on RMG under a different name before the Big Switch, or are you new here? If you’re new, WELCOME! Skybird

Root pruning will not cause rotting. Go ahead and prune them as soon as possible. But better yet, find them bigger pots! 15 inch pots are not very big for a full size rose. Even some minis will out grow a pot that size quickly. The bigger the pot the happier the rose will be for longer. Be careful with those self watering pots. The retain water in the bottom tray and that CAN cause root rot! I always remove any trays on the bottoms of my pots and drill in extra drainage holes. I also put them put on wire pot trolleys, off the ground, so they can drain easily. While roses do like a lot of water they do not like to have their roots sitting in water.