Whenever you get it done, the pruning you do in this season will set the stage for healthy spring growth, long straight bloom stems, and a bounty of beautiful flowers. Most of you will be pruning Hybrid Tea Roses. If they have grown tall, begin by 'topping' them down to about three feet in height. Clear away dead leaves and other trash from around the base of the plant, and check the bud union carefully for signs of crown gall or other disease or damage. Look for 'suckers'.
Suckers are canes which spring from the rootstock, rather than from the bud union.
Suckers will not be in bloom at this time of the year, and their foliage is usually rather different in appearance from the rest of the plant. Follow such canes carefully down to their point of origin below ground before cutting them away. Your best blooms next spring will come from healthy, sturdy new growth. Old wood, grey and dry-looking, is near the end of its productive life. Such canes should be removed, leaving the plant to support three or four of its best new canes.