Hi, welcome to GoY, round about the end of october/ november, you cancut them back by about a third, there's no need to use secateurs for this part, garden shears will do, this prune is just to help prevent root rock in the winter winds, in march you cancut all stems back to an outward facing bud, down to about 12" from the ground, cutting out completely any damaged, diseased, dead or crossing stems, aim tocreate a goblet shape, open in the middle, you can feed at the same time with a balanced fertilizer such as growmore, when the new growth starts spray with roseclear, Derek.

The RHS recommends pruning late winter, eg, late February during a milder spell. If you prune in late autumn, you risk serious die-back on the stems if a hard frost strikes soon afterwards That's when I prune my roses anyway.

I don't do mine until March, but as Bamboo says I shorten by about a third in autumn. New growth is unlikely but if there is any it will be removed in the March prune anyway.

Hi Bendipa, the autumn cut is purely to prevent the roots being exposed in winter, any die back can be pruned out at the next prune, which where I live is early to mid march, Derek.

Hi Sue, when did I change my name!!! :-) Derek.

Ah, didn't you know about it Derek? Like me, always the last to find out anything...
(Sorry, put it down to old age)

Hi Derek,

Not too sure why the roots of roses would be exposed in winter if they have been planted properly. One hears a lot about wind-rock loosening the roots of roses if that is what you are referring to. But a well established rose has tough roots going down a few feet into the soil just like that of a bramble. I believe die-back is a more serious problem. Park departments always seem to cut their roses back in autumn to tidy up. And after the severe winter of 2009/10 I noticed many of their roses were either dead or badly affected by die-back. Whereas mine suffered a bit. But because I had not pruned until March there was plenty of sufficient healthy stem lengths left below the affected areas.

Hi Bendipa, sorry, I replied to this yesterday, but my reply seems to have disappeared, it makes no difference how well a rose has been planted or otherwise, if you leave all the top growth on, and you get very high winds, you will get root rock, { or wind rock if you prefer } , either way it disturbs the soil, opening up small cracks which allows water to get in which then freezes in a heavy frost, damaging the roots, by cutting back by a third, you reduce the risk of this happening, and you still have 2 thirds of the stem length left, to cut out any die back which may or may not have occurred, Derek.