"Natty_Dread" wrote in message
...
Hi all -- Can anyone tell me how to identify what type of roses I have? I
bought my house a few years ago and there are two rose bushes in the back
yard which never really bloomed until we removed an incredibly overgrown
mass of honeysuckle vines that had basically taken them over. These two
bushes were about 7 feet tall when we removed the honeysuckle, and through
pruning here and there we got them to bloom several times during the
summer.
After deadheading, they developed more buds, but the bushes continued to
shoot way up -- I think they're almost 9 feet tall now. Are these roses
climbers since they're so tall? If so, I'd like to put in a trellis and
let
them naturally grow into a vine, but I'm not sure how to start. If I
prune
them back in the spring, will they grow to be as tall as they are now so I
can train them to use a trellis? One of the bushes grows up from one
thick
woody cane, maybe 2 inches in diameter, that branches into a Y at about 10
inches tall and several more canes grow from each side of the Y. I'd like
to prune it back, but I'm not sure how far since the bottom of the bush is
just the one woody cane and the bottoms of theY sections are woody also.
The other bush has a bunch of woody canes and a number of smaller canes,
some thinner than a pencil and some thicker (I think some may be suckers).
Any advice for me? I don't want to kill these bushes because they're the
only roses I have. Thanks in advance!

Go to the American Rose Society's webpage, www.ars.org/ and look up a
Consulting Rosarian in your area. They will come to your home free of charge
and give you a personalized consultation. They may can help to rejevenate
your overgrown rose, but it may be impossible to identify which rose it is
unless it is common.

Sunflower
MS 7b