Question
Hello, I was always taught to deadhead roses by gently plucking the spent blooms off. No twisting, just with a pop to the side. If the rose does not pop off in my hand, it is not ready. I was told by my mother and both grandmother's that this was the way to keep the rose bushes blooming. I was screamed at yesterday, and then had an article shoved in my face for "doing it wrong by not using pruning shears and that my way of doing it would cause rose to stop blooming".

They aren't my rose bushes, and I'll certainly never touch these particular ones again, but the person screaming never does anything for these roses. The dead blooms are allowed to stay on the plant, never being removed before I started doing it. They are tea roses. This is in California. I am sad that I might have been doing something to damage the plant.

Answer
Both your mother and grandmother knew what they were taking about when it came to taking off the dead rose blooms. There is no need at all to use shears. I know the rose books often tell you to "cut" the flowers off down to the first five leaflets, but that simply is not necessary. Many rose myths have been debunked by commercial growers because they simply do not have the time to waste if it isn't necessary. I grow over 800 roses, many of them the old ones and if I have to prune each one off, I wouldn't have any muscles left in my hands. I stroll through the garden and when I see a dead bloom, I reach up and  snap it off. It was Peter Beales, the well known British rosarian, that told me to do it that way.