Neal ....
It's fine not to prune off the buds. You prune for a purpose. At this time of year, you are pruning for storm protection, not to promote new growth. If you thought those canes that you left might be damaged by a coming storm, you would probably want to prune them.
You don't have to prune all of your roses, only those which you think may have breakage.
Margie ... I thought about the results of the study you quoted last night after I signed off and thought they might have been testing for floriferness and wrote about that in their conclusions, but actually the study may have proved the viability of one root stock vs another.
>>>>Sometimes, it's difficult to find fact based info.
Part of what makes it so difficult is that there are so many variables. Soil, ambient temperatures, and more. It's hard to make all things equal in all studies.
Ralph Moore spent years trying to develop a universal root stock. One of his favorite quotes was, "As soon as you think you know everything about roses, along comes a rose to prove you wrong."
Smiles,
Lyn
