Question
QUESTION: (eastern side of england uk, with a particularly cold winter 2010/11)
my booklet guide from a large and well know cultivator of roses in england tells me to prune back my english rose to approx. half its original size, after the first year. this seems a lot to me; also, a new bare root rose from the same company and also an english rose, has just been planted and i notice some die back on one or two shoots- i'm not sure what to do about it. should i get tough or gentle with the pruner in both instances, any other cultivation tips at this time?
thankyou, philip jones

ANSWER: Rose books and rose advice, seem to assume that we get the same weather every year without any differences. However in to-days world, everyone is scratching their heads wondering what to do because there are getting severe periods which make rose advice useless. In my area of the world, I could rely on the springs slowly warming up and then summer coming along. But in the last few years, it warms up, the roses bud out, and then we get a nasty cold snap and I get die-back. Like your climate, this has made me change my way of pruning. I would advise you to wait until the spring to do any major pruning. You can always trim back a taller than average cane that might get damaged by the winds but cutting back a rose might be better left until the springtime as the winter is probably not done with you yet. The reason for english roses to be cut back hard, it to encourage stronger growth but this can also be done in the springtime.
There is so much difference  between roses of to-day and even 20 years ago and many of the tidbits of rose wisdom have proven to be myths. That is because roses in North America are a commercial crop which means money and when money is involved, growers cannot afford to do what the rose books say are a must. Departments of Agricultural, which are now helping the commercial growers, have proved that hard pruning is not good for the rose. They found that the harder you prune back a rose, the less roots they have to support the top growth.  They only recommend cutting back by no more than a third. To get around the cutting back by a half as advised, all newly planted roses should be pruned down to 3 inches to make then push out sturdier canes and then left alone. But many of the older english roses had the desire to rest their heads on the soil and cutting them back hard each year did help the blooms to smarten up. It is also a myth that you have to use clippers to prune a rose. Firing up the electric hedge trimmer and the rose doesn't know the difference. However I did it too fast and it looked like a rat had gnawed the canes off!!. And for getting rid of those old canes right to the base, which is made difficult because one has to expand the handles, again fire up the electric reciprocating saw and one is done in a matter of minutes.
I guess what I am saying is that you will have to now make your own rose rules as the weather is not complying.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: thankyou lynette, i will leave pruning this year until the winter is over.
could you clarify about hard pruning versus light pruning;
for my 1 or 2 year old english rose: 'hard pruning is not good for the rose'
for my new and just planted english roses, prune down till they are only 3 inches high,
do you mean take 3 inches off, or prune till they are only 3 inches high-
which seems severe and may expose them to more die back this winter.
thankyou, philip

Answer
Sorry Philip for the confusion. Hard pruning is only done when you plant a new rose either in the fall or in the spring. This type of pruning is only done in the spring and this type of pruning will make the rose send out sturdy basal canes from the base as that is where the vigour is in a rose.  It takes a lot of energy to get to the top of a rose cane where if it is close to the ground, you get more thrust. You can only do this type of radical pruning once to a new rose in the spring as a rose needs lots of leaves to be healthy. When a rose has gone through a year after planting, the rose wisdom is that there should be no more hard pruning as it effects the roots. The reason for the hard pruning is to help eradicate weak characteristics in the rose bush. However roses have a way of growing that is programmed genetically and if you want to change the way it grows, you will have to prune it harder every spring and fall, and that is not good for the rose. I have only read about this constant hard pruning in the Austin English rose books. If a rose bends over then that is the way it will always want to grow no matter how you prune it. You can make it straighten up a little one year and then the next it will flop over again. English roes have a great tendency to bend over at the top and then grow downwards.
So you prune your newly planted rose bush canes all the way down so that only 3 inches is left but in the spring only. Your roses that have already been planted and have gone through a summer, just cut them back by a third. Don't hesitate to mail me if you need any other help with your roses.