From what I understand, you should still prune it. I take a third of my rose bushes off. I try to trim at a node that is going in the direction I want, I try to take out as much in the center of the bush as I can to allow air movement and I take out all dead wood; I even try to remove most of the nice green leaves! Roses are suposed to go through a period of dormancy, so by trimming and removing the leaves, it kind of shocks the rose into a brief dormancy...before spring starts here shortly!

Everyone else, chime in with what you do!

Kevin

All 24 of mine have been pruned. The only ones that still have just a few leaves are the climbers. This has been a very mild winter and those climbers refuse to loose all their leaves. I figure in about 2 weeks I will end up picking off those leaves. Go ahead and prune do the best you can. They still need to be shaped and the dead cut off, because spring is just around the corner.

Roses are frost-tolerant so they're pruned during winter in the low desert. Native plants that aren't frost tolerant are pruned after mid-February.

I started pruning after Christmas and still have about 70 to go. Depending on type of rose, plan to remove 1/3 to 1/2 the overall amount of the size of a mature plant. New plantings and climbers are trimmed back to remove weak and dead canes.

Cuts into the cane should be 1/4 inch above a bud eye (under the leaf) at a slight angle. When removing a cane, cut cleanly to remove the entire cane. Do not leave little nubs.

My dad always pruned his in late fall so we would have the flowers all winter. It got rid of the ratty sun-burned foliage and they had a longer growing season before the summer heat.