Wintering/Pruning David Austin's

**Brenda Spaur brenda@FieldHand.com>**

Hi all-

I'm very new to roses so any help is appreciated.       

I've been doing some on-line searching and am a little (OK,
more than a little :) confused about when to prune my David Austin
roses.  From what I've read, I think that I should prune them after
they bloom -- as opposed to in the spring.  Is this right?  My roses
are still blooming off and on.  I also saw somewhere not to prune too 
late in the season.  Not sure what that means here since unfortunately
we can get snow almost any time (Colorado).  I had several roses
die after last winter (very dry) so don't want to do anything that weakens
the bushes.  I'm planning to give the bushes more protection this
year and see if they can make it through the winter.  My bushes are
all only 1 or 2 years old.

Second question:  Several bushes have sent up long shoots that are just 
covered with buds.  These long branches are out of proportion to the rest of 
the bush but I haven't had the heart to cut them back until after the blooms 
are spent.  What do others do in this situation?  Leave the long branches and 
hope the rest of the bush catches up, trim back to a more reasonable shape
immediately, or trim back before winter sets in?

TIA,
Brenda Spaur
Denver, CO
Zone 5

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