On Fri, 25 Feb 2005 03:46:10 GMT, "Gail Futoran"
wrote:

"Eyebright" wrote
[snip to a Eureka! moment:]

oh and its said don t hard prune very young climbers as this can lead
to reversion back to bush rose.
[snip]

Okaaayyy. That explains that! When we moved into our
present house ten years ago, my husband hard pruned
what he believed were shrub roses, and which turned out
to be climbers - America. They have mostly ok (one
died several years ago), blooming ok, but never put
out much in the way of longish canes, or anything
resembling a climber. So now I know why. :0

I did the same thing with a rambler. After three years, it's still
just a large somewhat upright thing.

I don't blame him, really. Before I learned much about
roses, I managed to kill off quite a few. I'm doing much
better now.

Smae here, although I'm off and on in terms of "better". It looks like
I lost my first year Mel Hulse, unless I get some root ball basals
that come up. I neglected to mulch it properly when the weather first
turned cold. In fact, last year was a year of neglect for me, so I'm
not sure what my roses are going to look like this year. I'm not
hopeful at all, although I doubt I will have killed any others off.