Pruning the roses

"Fragrant Cloud"? Or maybe "Olympiad"?

Started pruning the roses today. I've left them late this year, and because we've had a mild winter they've started sprouting. Decided to leave some of the floribundas for a summer prune instead, I don't think they will be too disadvantaged by this. One of my roses, Remember Me, has had to be cut out entirely; it has a virus and is facing competition from a large box ball. Never mind. All things must come to an end, garden plants included. It has given me a lot of pleasure, except for last year when its virus-y look was very depressing. 
  I think part of being a good gardener is to know when to let plants go. The sentimentalist in me wants to keep favourite things living but sometimes we have to except that something is diseased and dying and put it out of its misery. Garden plants are living things that partake of the life cycle, they are not ever-living. It's sort of a garden declutter, I suppose. I'll also get rid of some non-performing tulip bulbs this season, and have plans to replant my front border and take a few large pittosporums out. I'm thinking of a purple/white/mauve scheme, asters, dahlias and autumn flowerers, to provide a late show of colour. Hoping to grow some less usual annuals from seed this year, things that the garden-centres don't usually bother with - scabious, viscaria and canterbury bells.
  A house round the corner from me is having its garden professionally landscaped, and the first thing they did was take all the existing plants out!! This seems a bit harsh, surely they could have assessed what was there and left some things. I can't see what was wrong with the garden that a little care wouldn't have solved, but no doubt they will concrete the whole thing over and charge heaps for the privilege. Not a firm I would employ myself.