Question
I usually take care of my sisters roses in her garden in Oregon coos county. they are not yet budding but the leaves are out and some of the roses have one or two buds on them how far back can I prune them? I try to get her to let me prune in the fall but she always has an excuse not to. I love roses and if she would let me take care of them she would have more roses then she could pick. what do I do?? sad at the neglected Roses

Answer
The fact that the roses are starting to leaf out really will have no effect on how you prune them. You can even prune a rose bush in the summer. If they are hybrid teas, then I would cut them back by about a third and do the usually clean up, such as cutting out any dead or diseased growth. If there are a lot of canes growing from the base you could also take out a couple of the very old ones and cut them right to the ground. This will give the bush a little more vigor as it will have less canes to nourish. You probably know this anyway, but afterwards sprinkle a couple of handfuls of rose fertilizer all around the base and they should do very well.