Oh, I forgot to tell you ... when I lived in San Diego, I volunteered at Tiny Petals, the nursery founded by Dee Bennett, and got a lot of my roses from that nursery. I was growing a LOT of miniature roses and few HTs down south.
I did experiment with not dead heading the roses and allowing them to bloom through our mild winters and found that the roses were not as productive as they were, if I allowed them to rest.
Your experience may be very different because you are growing different roses.
