That's one way of doing it, but you'll never get bushes of any size! :) If you want nice sized rosebushes (and I have one of those Canadians myself) just prune out the old dead wood after you get your green stems and buds. These are very hardy roses, and that old advice is really only applicable to certain types (mostly tea)of roses. I raise "old" hardy roses and this has given me the best results and best blooms. It also gives them a chance to - you know - get some established strong stems and some size. If you cut them back each year like that you wind up with little bushes and weaker stems. Now, since these are newer roses, and you need to get their roots established, once you can kind of see where everything is budding use very sharp rose clippers and nip them back right to just above that last swelling bud. Give them a couple more weeks before you do this, the cold weather will have slowed them down and may even cause a little more die-back.

-Marie

Thanks Marie. Your advice makes perfect sense to me!!

Marie gives good advice. And with roses if you're not completely sure what is/isn't dead you can always wait to see where the new growth is coming from before pruning. The older canes that are more brown than green are a perfect example. To someone unfamiliar with roses they may *look* dead when in fact they are not. It doesn't hurt to prune out the obvious dead material, wait a few weeks for new growth to show up, and make a second pass at pruning to clean up a bit more. Does that make sense? Have you checked out the Roses forum yet? Over the years I've learned so much hanging out on these forums.

Good luck with your roses. I'm sure they will be beautiful this summer!

Thanks, twohuskies. I was a bit intimidated to post my very basic question on the rose forum. Figured you Minnesota people might be kinder with a newbie (as you are!). But I'll start to lurk there to learn more. Thanks again for the advice.

marita - the rose folks are pretty nice! I hung out there for a long time, and still would if I had a few more hours in the day to look at all the great info and drool over the beautiful pictures *laugh*

-Marie