Zuzu, LOVE your yellow kitty! Too cute!!!!

Cut this one branch of a David Austin climber (I think). The scent is fabulous and the metal tag is buried. It's last blooms.

I'm glad Janice brought up Austin roses.
Today I went to this great rose nursery in Fillmore, Ca. (Otto and Sons) which was having an end of season 40% off sale on all their roses. They have a huge selection of Austins.
You'd never know by looking at their roses that it was the "end of the season" at all. Everything they had was loaded with blooms and in pristine condition.
I got a Queen of Sweden and a Love and Peace.

Here's the interesting part: They have a large "test area" where they grow Austins exclusively. Someone from Austin's co. comes and evaluates them and records how they perform, but they don't want the nursery to prune them at all or do anything to them except deadheading. It was amazing to see these bushes. They were ENORMOUS.
Most of them were planted in groupings of 3 or 5 and they were so dense and loaded with flowers it was staggering. A large percentage of them were well over 7 feet tall...some pushing the 9 foot mark.

I asked the owner how long they've been in the ground and he said only about 5 years. Some will get removed and new ones planted to test very soon. OF COURSE I didn't take my camera.

It was unbelievable how HUGE these plants were. Kind of makes me want to experiment with my roses and not prune them and see what happens !

If you have the space, JD, you really shouldn't prune the roses at all. They grow better if they're never pruned. I have to prune mine because there's no room for them to grow.

Janice, if you mean the yellow kitty that's driving, that one belongs to Tabby, not to me, but you're right: It is too cute!!!!

Way back in a thread (I was catching up) I saw one in one of your posts, I think, ZuZu. Love Tabby's cat too. Those yellow ones seem so friendly.

Perhaps you saw a picture of Zuzu's Roger. He is one of my favorites. I love his expression of superiority.

I prune my roses and I prune reguraly. Honestly I disagree that they grow better if not prunned at all. Roses really love to get prunned as they respond with lots of nice thick growth. But maybe it is just the kinds of roses I grow as I am not into old garden roses or ramblers or climbers. Have only a few climbers, no room for them. And I do have to prune all my roses because like Zuzu, I don't have the room to let them get large.

Then there is a zone difference. I am in zone 6 and Zuzu in zone 9. We get winter damage here. I figgure that never happens in zone 9.

Rita, I think your roses are responding to those fabulous fertilizings you give them. I never have time to prune my roses (or fertilize for that matter -- I'm terrible!), and my favorites are my self-pruners. That's why I love floribundas so much!

Well, there is no law that said the types of roses I have here must be pruned or else. I just really, really believe in prunning and severe prunning at that. Works for me.

The biggest prunning I give my roses is first thing in the spring as we are comming out of winter. The prior fall, I never prune and let them grow so I often have tall roses. They get mercelessly cut back, back, back. Often to about 18 inches. By the June flush one could never believe it. They are thick and full and really pretty.

Well, one look at your pictures and one can tell that your roses are soooooooo happy! They really love you too!

actually, I agree w/Rita. Mine seem to be much much happier after I prune them.. all kinds of new growth & TONS and tons of new blooms. And I definitely don't take care of mine 1/10th as well as she does. I'm thinking it's more climate than anything. Zuzu lives in Paradise. I'm in the 9th level of hell.

I don't prune anything - I can't stand to cut off all that healthy material. I just remove dead canes, and my roses do grow quite huge but they are not tidy and symmetrical. I have more space than time.

Rita, you must not have read about the study they did in England. I always thought pruning was necessary and even beneficial until I heard the results.

The thread "Some new pruning rules and some pleasant reminders" in Roses forum

So far, I'm still pruning all of my roses every year (or at least getting annoyed at myself for not finishing all of them), but I'm close to 70 now, with more than 2,000 rose bushes, so I can easily see the day when they'll have to fend for themselves. It'll be Bramble Town here.

I do have lots more than you do apparently but I don't have lots and lots of room. My roses are planted close together and if I did not prune heavily things would quickly get out of hand around here. And they do really well from the pruning. I haven't heard of that study, or any other like that but nothing would ever convince me to change the way I do my roses!

Unless I hard prune Zephirine D. she doesn't produce optimal bloom. Is that rose different?

Mine only bloomed once a year when I had it not matter what I did, I soon shovel prunned it.

LOL, Rita!

You have more than 2,000 rose bushes, Rita?

No, no, no. Sorry! I didn't read very carefully. I thought it said you had 70. Which was surprising to me as I had thought that you had many, many. I only have about 200.

I was wondering how you managed to keep them all sprayed. I think if I sprayed my roses even once, I'd drop dead of emphysema on the spot.

Well, with 2,000 no wonder it would be too much to spray. I actually think the pruning and spraying factors are a big deal. That is why I never created any new rose beds once I had mine laid out. I did change roses around in some beds and shovel prunned some and put in some new ones but I didn't make new beds because I had about as many as I felt I could take care of. And of course I am very picky about my roses.