A friend of mine asked me for some advice about pruning her roses in Florida. She was told to prune them now, and strip all of the leaves off. She thought that sounded weird, so asked me what I thought. I have never heard of stripping the leaves off of your roses.....but I also have never gardened in Florida, so maybe that's normal? I told her not to do it until we found out more info. So are there any Florida gardeners out there than can confirm this seemingly bizarre practice?

When I moved to the Houston area - a climate similar to Florida - I heard people refer to stripping their roses to force dormancy in the almost non-existent winter. I don't think it is done any more.

I'm not in Florida, but I'm in a comparable zone. Roses don't go dormant in zones 9-11, so gardeners in these zones trick the roses into thinking they're dormant by removing their leaves. If she wants to prune them, this is a good time to do it.

We cross-posted, Porkpal. You're right. It is an almost obsolete practice. There's really no need for it in the warmer zones, just as there's really no need for pruning unless the roses are growing to an unmanageable size.

Thank you so much for the responses! She did say they are growing beautifully, and didn't understand why she would strip them. I'm so glad I told her not to!

I'm glad you did too. No one in the warmer zones, where roses bloom nearly year round, should feel compelled to prune or strip them without a good reason. I prune my hybrid teas because I want them to have long stems and I prune many of my other roses because they're just too big otherwise, but roses prefer not to be pruned at all.