'Leggy' Stromboli roses
Hampshire,
United Kingdom 
Hi - I am quite a novice and planted 5 stomboli hedging roses Jan 08 - they flowered beautifully in the summer but were apt to fall over - I pruned them back in October and they are now again flowering brilliantly but they are really leggy - almost as if they are a climbing rose rather than a hedging rose and you can imagine that when it rains in our great british summer they end up bowed right over and on the floor - did I prune them at the wrong time - I don't understand why they are so leggy - Mel
7 Jun, 2009
Most roses benefit from a light prune in the autumn to protect from strong winds, but the main pruning is always best done in the spring.
With your hedge roses, they need hard pruning for the first year or two and they will grow thick and bushy. After that, you can just trim them to keep in size and shape.
So, next spring (late Feb', early Mar'), give them a really hard prune to between 6 and 12 inches and they should be fine.
7 Jun, 2009