It has been very mild so far. Most of my roses still have all their leaves. Don't worry. If ot turns really cold, they will lose them. If not, they are still photosynthesising and adding food to the plant in readiness for summers blooms.
Don't worry about it. The rose will drop its leaves when it is ready. We haven't had much cold weather which would cause leaf drop. I have a Gertrude Jekyll, a wonderful rose. Mine is growing in a very large ceramic container next to the conservatory so I can enjoy the scent. It probably is not as "fat" a plant as it would be if grown in open ground but that is my choice. I am thinking of giving it a new lease of life and moving it into the garden in the next year or two but I love walking into the pool of its perfume as I come down the steps from my car parking area to the house
hmmm.... I shall start to panic soon if I don't get a winter freeze... this is not good for roses here... I may be heading for a January without a single frost... unheard of in my gardening lifetime... ...although it's nice to see them evergreen, it can be detrimental... I was expecting a freeze by now so I will be going out to defoliate my Lady of Shalott rose which is the only one I haven't done.. At David Austin's they have recently defoliated all their roses and pruned them...
Dormancy is quite important to most roses with antique ancestry … the leaves also harbour diseases so it's an opportunity to deal with that too.. they are also shooting out far too soon... about 6 weeks too early, should we get a harsh late cold snap...
Most of my DA roses still have their leaves (the rugosas shed theirs a couple of months ago). We have had a couple of frosts but it has certainly not been persistently cold as one would expect at this time of year. It never occurred to me that it could be detrimental for them to have a year being evergreen so I'll take Marlorena's tip and defoliate mine if there's no sign of a frost in the next week or so. I pruned a couple this week when I was cutting back and mulching borders. Guy from Peter Beales gave a talk at Garden Club a couple of years ago and he was asked about timing of winter pruning. He said it wasn't important. They prune roses right through the winter simply because they have so many. They can't wait until late winter / early spring and try do them all over a 2 week period - not enough staff / hours in the working day.
Heaven is ... sitting in the garden with a G&T and a cat while watching the sun go down
Thank you again everybody - you are all so knowledgable. I have read all your comments again and decided to take all the leaves off. It looks like it is not going to cause any harm.
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...although it's nice to see them evergreen, it can be detrimental... I was expecting a freeze by now so I will be going out to defoliate my Lady of Shalott rose which is the only one I haven't done..
At David Austin's they have recently defoliated all their roses and pruned them...
Dormancy is quite important to most roses with antique ancestry … the leaves also harbour diseases so it's an opportunity to deal with that too.. they are also shooting out far too soon... about 6 weeks too early, should we get a harsh late cold snap...
Up to you, of course...
It never occurred to me that it could be detrimental for them to have a year being evergreen so I'll take Marlorena's tip and defoliate mine if there's no sign of a frost in the next week or so.
I pruned a couple this week when I was cutting back and mulching borders. Guy from Peter Beales gave a talk at Garden Club a couple of years ago and he was asked about timing of winter pruning. He said it wasn't important. They prune roses right through the winter simply because they have so many. They can't wait until late winter / early spring and try do them all over a 2 week period - not enough staff / hours in the working day.