I must say that the differing views on pruning are bewildering. I spoke to one rose expert in Honolulu who indicated that because we have no dormancy period I can prune anytime. Last fall we had lots of rain and black spot and powdery mildew attacked. Also, my roses became so tall I couldn't manage them. So I stripped all the leaves and pruned the canes to about 12 inches. I've done this twice a year. My roses grew new leaves in about a month and bloomed in two months or so.
As far as I can tell from the posts above, my pruning method is all wrong. Maybe it's the case that my growing conditions are so ideal that no matter what I do I can't harm my roses.
