Question: I pruned my four hybrid tea roses down to the base and covered them with mulch in November. However, this year only one has grown back. Did I prune too much, or did our harsh winter kill them?

Answer: Hybrid tea roses can be finicky and may fail to overwinter for any number of reasons, ranging from a culmination of stresses, to temperature fluctuations, to poor drainage in the planting area. Usually, if they fail to come back promptly with vigorous growth in the spring they are weakened and will not perform all that well for the season, and may eventually die. In general, it is better to prune them back by only about half in the fall (enough to reduce wind damage) and then prune again a bit harder in the spring to remove any winter damage and to shape the plant. The harder the spring pruning, the fewer, but larger, blooms you'll have.