Skiekitty....
Actually, yes warmer zones can prune in the fall, but if they are modern roses, they should NOT be pruned in fall except for winter protection purposes ... ie, windrock, or to fit into winter protection covers. Modern roses store their nutrients in their canes. They need those nutrients both to help get them through winter with less die back and to help them push into spring. The roses we call ogrs, in a sense, know how to go dormant. They pull all of the nutrients out of the leaves and canes and send them to the root zone to protect the plant so it will be viable and come back in spring.
When the repeat blooming genes were brought into roses, the same roses used in breeding those roses also brought the genes that interfered with the plants ability to store its nutrients in the root zone for the winter. These roses truly never go dormant and that is the reason they suffer die back in the colder zones. They simply do not have the tools to truly go dormant.
Roses are tough and can take all kinds of abuse and survive. Since they are a food source for many animals, they are genetically programmed to come back even when they are pruned at a less optimum time for the plant. Deer and such simply don't know the pruning rules
When I lived in southern California, we stopped dead heading in October to allow the plants to form hips and complete their plant cycle and have a rest. Often I started pruning my modern roses in December and finished by February 14th.
Now, living in the mountains of northern California, I do not start pruning until after the expected last frost date because all new growth stimulated by the pruning process will be frozen if there is a serious frost setting the plants back further than if I had left them alone.
I do "snow tip" prune some of the roses in the garden to open the canopy so that heavy, wet snow will not cause breakage, but that's for the roses that have very rigid canes and a heavy canopy of foliage that does not drop off of the plant during the winter months.
Ron, Zary's 'Catalina' is a modern rose. I would not prune it until after the last frost in your climate.
Smiles,
Lyn
