If this is their first winter, they are babies. I would not take anything off except wood that is obviously dead, if any. Ditto leaves. If I read your zone info correctly, there is not any danger of a freeze for the rest of the "Winter" ? If that is the case, I would feed them now, and put a layer of mulch around them (not touching the bush) and then just wait.

Jackie

I have all the drift roses, including the new one this year - Popcorn - which starts out yellow and changes to a creamy white. They have become my favorites because they bloom constantly and for the most part are carefree. The hybridizers say the drifts should be pruned to a height of 4-6" and I have done this every year, even though the pink spreads like crazy and the pastel pink called Sweet makes a pretty good size bush. It's hard to do but they sure do respond come spring. Any questions?

What growing zone, emily2002. Growing zone can sometimes make a difference.

8b, north Florida. However, if you'll read what the hybridizers have written, they don't mention how you should prune in different zones. I love these roses and have about 100 of them spread around. Do you have any?

I have Sweet drift roses which barely survived last summer's drought. They were planted last spring. This year in early spring they were very small, about 9", and I mostly trimmed off the dead parts. It is now May 4, they are already 24" high in spite of our up and down temps, have many buds and a few blooms. I can see they are probably going to be much bigger than I would like them to be for the space they occupy in front of a fountain. I assume if I prune them further now, there will be no blooms this summer. I also assume my only other options are moving them which put them at risk for dying or just get over their being too big for the space and doing a better pruning job next spring? Are my assumptions correct? Thanks.