“Leggy” rose bushes

kentexiles

Can anyone give me advice about pruning my bush roses,please? Several of them have developed what I can only describe as “trunks”! They are about 9” in height,about 1” in diameter and very dark brown.The flowering stems then grow from the top of these”trunks”.This has made them look very leggy and tall.I don’t want to have to grub them out as the flowers are so beautiful and,because I have a lot of them,it would cost me a lot of money to replace them.I guess that if I was to cut them right down they would die.Any help would be much appreciated.Thank you

punkdoc

A picture would help.

Blue Onion

We get quite harsh winters some years in my part of Utah.. and it kills my roses back to snow level (about six inches from the ground).  I have both standard and some sort of trailing variety.  I just prune out the dead growth and lots of fresh grow up from the base and stem.  The roses came with the house, so I have no idea about root stock.. but any of the base growth has always matched the rest of the plant/flowers so I doubt they are grafted.  

I would give it a good mulch this fall and then a prune back down to about a foot tall this winter.  Give it some feeds in the spring and see how it goes.