Re-Shaping Roses after Blackspot

My roses were hit very hard by blackspot for several years (the previous owner of my home completely neglected them, one couldn't be saved at all). Now they're very odd shapes. Some are tall and spindly and some are lop-sided. Assuming I can get the blackspot under control, how and when should/can I shape them. I'm still very new at this gardening thing, I bought my first house not quite two years ago, so if anybody has a link to a website with good instructions... maybe even pictures, that would be GREAT!

You don't say what type of roses you have, but this site has some great rose pruning info with pictures. If you scroll down you will see info on pruning the different types.
http://www.urbanext.uiuc.edu/roses/prune.html

This Australian site even has a video for pruning roses!
http://www.magicgardenroses.com.au/

I'm sure others will come along with more info, but in the meantime you should be adding lots of organic matter to the soil to help them recover. A topdressing of an inch of compost would help them out. Roses (unless they are the old fashioned one) are heavy feeders. A topdressing of used coffee grounds will help make them happy too. You could make a compost tea spray for them this year and use it every couple of weeks to help them fight off fungal diseases. Here's how to make your own sprays for diseases and pests.
http://www.ghorganics.com/page15.html

Newt

Hello LizRickaby,

The cold from winter can exactly diminish the problem of fungus spreading. Therefore, I advise you to remove the feuillage affected by the blackspot first. Please make sure you remove all dropped leaf and throw or burn them and not leave them at the base of the plant to spread the fungus.

When you are sure that there will be no threat of forst again, you can start to decide how to shape the rose bush. To prune and shape the rose bush, will stimulate growth, you do not want to activate, wakng up your roses and have the sudden frost kill or injure the new growth. Therefore make sure the frost threat is over before prunning.

Normally, for climbers, they will have more blooms when they are trained to grow horizontally. For others, the higher they grow, the lesser blooms you will get.

Spring peventive and nutrient sprays are very important to ensure a good structure of the plant. The preventive spray is especially a must right after spring prunning to ensure no effection to their wounds. Espom salt spray can be both preventive and nutrient spray at the same time.

Amitié,
Pixi