Fall: After the first killing frost, trim longer stems to keep them from snapping in winter storms. Keep rose bushes from being top heavy to protect them from being uprooted in strong winds. Crossing branches that could be damaged by rubbing together should also be trimmed back.
After several days of below freezing temperatures, create a mound of soil, compost, shredded leaves or evergreens 8 to 10 inches deep over the base of the plant. Mounding keeps the rose uniformly cold, which reduces the chance of damage caused by cycles of freeze and thaw.
If you want to do any cutting of your roses in autumn, wait until after the first hard frost (temperature below 25 degrees Fahrenheit overnight). If you cut back before the first hard frost, it may send a signal to the roses to grow when they should be going dormant.
Step 1 - Start preparing your rose during the fall months- halt fertilizing and deadheading. Step 2 - After the first hard frost, water the plant well. Step 3 - After a few good freezing days, protect the bud union with a mound of soil then mulch. Step 4 - After the rose is dormant, prune the canes.
Trim longer stems right after the first frost in the fall.
Again, it depends on the specific rose variety you are growing and your climate. For the most part, you can prune away dead, damaged, and diseased stems any time of the year.
It's easy to neglect roses, because they don't need to be pruned regularly in order to grow and bloom year after year. But, if you want to keep them healthy and full of flowers, trimming helps a ton! If you never cut them back, over time they will bloom less, and look more scraggly.
In early November, prune the top third out of plants to reduce and eliminate snow damage if we receive an early, wet snow. Do the finish pruning in the spring while the roses are still dormant but the chances of a hard frost are behind us (about late February). Leave until spring.
Cutting a rose bush down to the ground in the middle of Spring is a bit extreme. However, roses are amazingly hardy, so they may recuperate. I would just make sure they have enough water, and WAIT. Do not feed them, spray them, or anything, until they start showing new growth.
Finely-shredded, pine bark, mulch is good to use. It creates a nice thick blanket that doesn't get matted down into large clumps. Mound the mulch around the base of the rose to a depth of 6 to 8 inches. This is all we do to protect our roses in the Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden.
As a general rule of thumb, you should not prune your rose bush back more than 1/3 to 1/2 of its overall size. Doing so can cause the plant to go into shock, often leading to an untimely death.
Most roses can withstand a quick cold snap of temperatures down to 10 degrees F, but it is best to protect them if you expect an extended period of time when temperatures dip under 20 degrees F. The amount of protection your roses need depends on the climate in which you live.
Repeat flowering varieties should have their new growth pruned back by about a third, shortening sideshoots to two or three buds. If some stems have stopped flowering, or the plant has become leggy and bare at the base, take one or two older branches back to near ground level in late winter.
In coldest regions: Prune at the end of winter. Wait until after the last frost, just before buds begin to swell. In more moderate zones: Roses frost several times but may never lose all leaves.
“The freezing weather 'cooked' my buds and new growth, and my stems are dying. Can I save my bushes, or are they going to die?” No, they shouldn't die, but you will need to re-prune them.
When fresh flowers & roses are kept at freezing temperatures even for a very short period of time it can result in the discoloration of the flower & premature death. For best results, we recommend all Flower Patch flower bouquets be kept in a well ventilated- cool area of your home or office.