Question
I have two roses that I have not pruned in a very long time.  One is a bush type that is beginning to show signs of dieing at the bottom.  the other is some kind of climbing rose. My question is this, how do I know how far back to prune them so I can start over and take better care of them?  Also when would be a good time to move them to a new location in my garden?  I am in Montevallo Alabama.

Answer
When you go to prune an old rose hard, you have to be careful that you don't put it into shock by cutting too much off. First cut straight across the rose bush down by about a third. Don't worry about how you prune, just cut it right across. Then cut right to the base three of the oldest canes, They will be the ones that have rough, grey bark. Next cut to the base any dead canes. What you are doing is lightening the load on the roots and making room for more new canes to come up from the base. The bush only needs about 5 of the nice thick green canes to grow well. Check to see if any of the growth on the bush has some smaller dead canes on it and then cut those out also. What you should have is a shortened rose bush with canes that you can see spaces through.
Now put a bag of steer manure all around the base, as the soil will be depleted and need help, then on top of that sprinkle a cup of any rose fertilizer all around the base too. Finally water it so that the ground is really soaked and then put any kind of mulch you can get in your area around the bush on top of the fertilizer and the manure. Now the rose has a good chance of growing well for you. It doesn't need anymore food until the next spring. If you feel that there are other old canes that should go remove them next spring before the rose starts to leaf out. Pruning a rose this way will not shock it.
In regards to the climber. Again cut the climber back to about 5 feet tall. Leave three of the thickest canes and cut out any that are thinner than a pencil. Again look for any dead growth and cut that off too. Do the same around the base as you did for the bush rose but increase the fertilizer to about 2 cups and make the mulch wider as climbers have a wider root systems.