So I just bought my first house and I finally have some room to do gardening but one of the plants that came with the house is what I believe to be a China rose bush. I purchased the house back in August and haven't had time to care for the bush. I have very little experience with gardening but am very eager. The plant in the photo has some serious greyed out branches towards the bottom with some mossy looking growth but the newer branches seem to all be healthier and green. Not quite sure how I should go about pruning when the time comes. It seems like it was let go a while before I moved in. The photos with it flowering were probably about a month ago.

Welcome, Slupa!

It doesn't look like it is dying at all to me. Everyone of those gray canes has green growth coming off of it. As roses mature their canes do turn gray or brown like bark. That does not mean they are dead. Only remove any canes that do not have any green growth coming off of them.

Does this rose rebloom all summer? If so removing the spent blooms will help it to bloom quicker. It also keeps it looking neater. Just keep it watered and give it a little fertilizer for now and wait and see what it does.

By the way, knowing where you live and what zone you are really helps us with giving advice on how to care for a rose.

Thank you for the information. I'm in Louisiana zone 9a and it's been getting down to the upper 30s and low 40s this past week but that's about as low as it gets around here.

From what I researched it seems I should probably wait until spring to start pruning it back. Is that correct or can I start cutting back a bit now?

Not knowing if this is a once blooming rose or a repeat blooming rose I would tell you to leave it alone for now and wait to prune it until after it blooms next spring. Then wait to see if it blooms again. if it does then you can do whatever pruning or shaping you'd like. If it does not rebloom then wait until after the following spring's bloom to prune again.