When we moved into this house a little more than ten years ago, there was a good sized rose garden right in front of the front porch. I have never been able to keep plants alive, including cactuses, so I figured the rose garden was doomed. The front of the house gets ONLY afternoon and evening sun, and we trim the bushes back, right to the ground every fall, just before snow, and even with me caring for them, and NY winters, they are all still doing wonderfully, blooming several times per season, with tons of flowers each time. We have even had one pink bush and one white bush somehow come together to produce another bush that blooms white roses ringed in pink, and they are the prettiest roses I have ever seen. The only special treatment these bushes get are coffee grounds (used) are mixed with the soil all summer long, which has made the roses do even better than they did before.
An afterthought- when the bush is growing during the summer, if you find some "branches" with no buds/blooms reach higher up than the majority of the roses/buds on the plant, cut back those branches with no buds, it will make the flowers themselves do better. I didn't know this before, but a long-time gardner told me it takes more energy from the plant to support these taller shoots, so the flowers don't get all the support they need.
