Here's my predicament. Due to some unforeseen circumstances, I have a rose bed that has basically been neglected for the last two months. The roses look horrible and have very few leaves and almost no flowers. I found myself in the same situation several years ago and when the rains started up in Nov/Dec, I found myself cutting off lots of good new grow in January when I pruned. For all practical purposes, the last two months have kind of been their dormant period.

Just wondering if there's any reason I shouldn't do it now. By the way, for those who are familiar with it, I generally follow the Dick Streeper calendar.

Thanks.

So, I say, go ahead and try it. It's doubtful you'll harm them much... if at all.

Socalgal, I do get rust from time to time on my roses. I like to think of myself as an organic gardener. I have a couple of large plots in my backyard full of annual flowers and vegetables which are never sprayed except for the occasional use of BT. However, I've found that I have to spray Orthenex on my roses once in early spring and once in late spring. I hate doing it (and it smells awful) but I don't know any other way of controlling rust and black spot.

Mind you, they don't flower that much except for the top. But with that in mind, I've done some mild experimenting on my half-dozen roses, and found that outside of the winter rains creating rust and blackspot, roses do just fine in coastal CA without a yearly pruning. That said, a couple of caveats:

- I don't get worried much about rust (we're as likely to get it around here in June as in January, due to the fog belt), but I do mulch, every year. Like camellias, a few flowers/leaves falling to the ground aren't going to kill them, but too many gives rise to even more fungal disease without some cleanup and a fresh mulch layer.

- Pruning is more to keep good circulation around and within the rose than to give it a 'rest'. A 'rest' may be useful in regions where it freezes, but roses are like citrus - feed them and they just keep on going in moderate climes.

So last year, for instance, it was so warm in January I never did prune the roses back. Therefore, when I cut roses for the vase this year, about half of them I cut back all the way to the main branch - an ongoing 'half-pruning', if you will. The roses are fine, albeit hitting the 7' mark for Double Delight, LOL.

- If you miss a year of pruning back, I've noticed my hybrid teas get very tall and a bit lanky the second year, whereas the floribundas could care less. Climbers especially will flower more with pruning back, though.