How do I prune my roses?

[FoolOfATook]

I moved into a new house 2 years ago which had a small rose garden which we have added to over the last 2 summers.

I cut the dead heads off of the roses but last year didn't prune them over the winter.

The didn't flower much this summer but all of a sudden I've had a lot of flowers at the end if September. I'm guessing the extended warm weather and rain.

I'm just wondering how to cut them back. I read somewhere cut them all to 6 inches off the ground . I don't want to ruin them for next year so I want to do it right!

first you should find out what sort of roses they are, eg climbing, shrub, standard etc as they have different treatments.

or, in more simple terms: How tall are they?

If you look at the bottom, you may be able to see that the stem coming out of the ground is relatively gnarled, then it become smoother (or at any rate different) at a sort of lumpy bit. Is this a few inches above the ground? Or higher up?

You prune many roses in March. It they are hybrid tea roses or floribundas (one big flower or a cluster of flowers) cut back to the last green shoot. These are most likely roses in a rose bed. You can dead-head now and prune seriously in the Spring. This might be 6 ins above the ground, or it might be 24 ins above the ground depending upon the age and type of rose. If you have a David Austin (a modern repeat flowering, but old fashioned looking rose), look on their web site for instructions but I treat them like a hybrid tea. If it is a shrub rose, (bigger and bushier and usually flowers once) just tidy it up and cut back any dead looking areas in the late winter. If any of the roses have labels, this will tell you what type of rose they are.

I doubt if yours are climbing roses or rambling roses. These usually are planted to grow up a trellis, obelisk, house or tree and can be huge!! Cut them right down if you need to!