Please help! I know nothing about roses, but am renting a house with a yard full of them! I have a mammoth rose bush that is huge and out of control. The flowers are dying and ugly, but Cutting the way the online sites recommend will not even make a dent into this thing. There are long thick branches with no grow and then leaves and roses at the end. I can look inside the beast and see new roses and new growth underneath theses branches. I want to just cut the whole thing down to this new growth, but I don't even know if I can do that. I tried trimming and have made an ugly hole in the thing. I'm at a loss. I am adding a picture of what it looked like in March- It's grown much larger and half the roses are dead now. The 2nd picture is close up of what the blooms look like. Thanks for any help!!!
This is wrong time of year to be pruning roses in Texas. They are semi-dormant from the heat at this time. Best to wait till Mid or late Sept at the earliest to prune and only lightly prune them. Drastic pruning should occur near bud break. Here in Austin pruning is usually done between mid-February and-the first week of March. If you're in Allen then March 1 might be about right. Dead-heading can be done anytime.
