The message
from Kate Brown contains these words:

OK, this is such an iggerant question but is it OK to prune roses now?
We missed pruning them in November, when we usually take them down a
third or so (then another prune in Feb/March), and then it was too
frosty to do anything. Now the temperatures are reliably above
freezing, should we do a bit of pruning, or wait till February and do
the lot then?

We're in Blackheath, London, quite high and colder than central London
but warmer than the countryside.

Depending on type of growth, I take my roses down to six inches every
few years.

Obviously, you don't do that to standards, but bush, climbing and
rambling roses can be cut down a long way, just so long as a good length
of grafted wood is left on the rootstock, if there is one.

I did a bit of gardening for someone locally and she was really
distressed by my treatment of her straggly roses - she had never pruned
them.

Next summer she was delighted...

--
Rusty
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