I usually cut a little less than these rules suggest unless there is some other issue. If it looks like the canes harbour disease, I may cut more. If the rose is not growing vigorously and I think it needs more foliage before it can support flowers I will generally cut much less, sometimes not at all.
One will sometimes prune a rose severely if it has suffered from disease. A Baronne Prevost rose I recently cut from 4 ft to 12 inches has been slow to recover this year, but it has been disease-free and is much more densely foliated than ever before. Finally, though it has fewer roses, the ones it does produce are remarkable - much more dense and beautiful than before.
Pruning can re-invigorate a plant, but if one is to prune severely, remember that it takes quite a bit of energy for a plant to recover, so feed the roses well.
The Steps
There are a number of pruning steps
A person contemplating pruning a rose plant does well to consider first the fact that roses from the time they evolved, millions of years ago until the time they were broadly cultivated much less than 1000 years ago have gone completely without pruning, save for the occasional deadheading that a deer may have performed. In this light it is clear that of all the attentions of a cultivator, pruning may be the least essential. A person cultivating a rose can do any of the other items on this list badly or not at all and in the case of many can succeed in killing the rose. In general, no matter how you approach the pruning task your choice will not be terminal to the rose.
This said, pruning can provide many benefits. Deadheading prolongs blossoming on remontant roses. Removal of dead wood decreases the chances of disease. Thinning increases the vigor of the remaining canes. Shaping causes the aesthetic appeal of the rose to increase.
When
The first thing to consider is when to prune. With once-blooming roses it is usually best to prune right after they are finished blooming. This will allow them to build up over the summer for the bloom the next year.
For remontant roses, the very best time to prune is just before the plant leafs out. Pruning stimulates growth, so this is an ideal time. Frequently one can tell this by seeing nodules form on the surface of the canes where the canes will be sprouting leaves. This is a busy time of year, so one can also choose to prune when the roses are completely dormant. In England and Carolina this might be early January. In the Northeastern US it might be mid February to March. In the hottest parts of Texas, roses are never completely dormant, so a good time to prune is before fall's cool weather sets in, mid September.
Deadheading, of course, is done after a rose blooms. If the rose is not remontant, deadheading does little more than make the plant look slightly cleaner. If you like the appearance of hips, then it is important not to deadhead after the fall bloom period.
How Much
The second thing to consider is how much to cut off. Every rosarian, has her own ideas on how pruning should be carried out. Some rosarians advocate cutting a plant most of the way to the ground. Others advocate minor trimming. And each cultivar responds differently to pruning. Some thrive on it; others languish after harsh pruning. Two rules of thumb exist:
