I am pretty darn far from a master gardener. As a matter of fact, Nick does most gardening because I KILL PLANTS. But, one thing that is my task around here is pruning all of our trees and the raspberry and rose bushes. Growing up, my parents had this really old, hardy rose bush and every "dormant season" (late fall to early spring) my dad would cut the thing to the ground, nothing left of it. And every year, it would grow back just as healthy as before and it would blossom all summer and well into the fall.
We moved in the winter and in the spring, upon seeing a rose bush, I dutifully cut it down to nothing. It grew lovely, tall stalks... too tall to support their own weight, but there was not one blossom. The next year, I refrained from cutting it and it blossomed beautifully, but it looked like this: