Gardening and Horticulture - Pruning Roses

I know that a thread existed concerning this, but I have a few more questions. Do you prune only in the spring? How much should you prune without weakening the plant? I live in western Kansas and the weather conditions can be extreme. This bush is rather old, but I would like to do what ever I can to make it look nice, yet keep it healthy and vibrant in the process.

Best Wishes
Steve

Here is some information on pruning roses.

http://www.olyrose.org/pruning.htm

http://gardening.about.com/cs/msub81/a/pruningroses.htm

http://www.urbanext.uiuc.edu/roses/prune.html

http://www.rosemagazine.com/pages/pruning.asp

Hope this helps.

When we first moved in our House there was a row of 60 to 70 foot tall White pines just 20 yards from our house. We got our first sun on the house after 1pm in july.

We were renters then, & even though winter is worse in Ohio we learned about the super destrutive Ice Storms in Western NC. The first dollar we spent after buying our House was to get this 300 foot row of Giant White Pines on the ground & burned. That night after was the most restful sleep I ever had since moving in to this house. As we cut we saw that this was not a single row of giant pines but 2 rows. On guy planted on his side & the other guy on his this caused the trees to lean away from each other with no branches on the inside. We just got lucky I guess. :eek:

After the new Sunshine burned the Moss off the side of the roof I began to notice the plants & stunted shrubs planted next to the house. An open center pink rose bush put on a few roses that late Summer & the aroma was intoxacating. I went to work removing all dead wood cleaned the soil under the Rose & that is all I did that year.

The next Spring I worked in 10 lbs of compost, 2lbs of bone meal, 1 lb Kelp meal & worked it into the soil with a 4 tine hand tool. By July there was a nice bush where there had been a scragly ol plant before. Now every early winter I just remove all the dead limbs, & clean off the hips. Since it has grown so well I give it the same food every Spring also since it is a Bush type rose not a Hybrid Tea Rose, all I cut is the dead wood & any overly long branches.

I never thought it would live much less grow into a beautiful bush form Rose with dozens of 4" pink open centered Roses every season. I am glad that I took that little bit of time to give it the help it needed when it first got all that sun. :)

Thank you very much for the links. They were very useful. Now let's see if I can put this information into practice and NOT kill the bush.

Best Wishes
Steve