Shiva wrote:

Cass wrote:

In my experience, you will get those basals
while the rose is relatively young, say within the first 5 years. Don't
cut off those basals. JC will produce new long continuing laterals from
the base of those basals.

OMG, do people actually CUT OFF basals? And why?

Sure. Sometimes the first couple of canes look pretty lame in
comparison to the new, long, graceful basals - - short, right angle
growth. It's gotta go, you think. With JC, if you just cut it back to a
foot or less, a new, long cane will break, not really a basals but
close enough to be called a basal. Then you can cut the rest of the
ugly part off.

There are plenty of climbers that can survive having basals removed,
especially OR's. They can produce literally a dozen canes. Often it is
better to remove the entire cane than to shorten it in any way.
Removing the entire basal is exactly how ramblers are handled. You
don't bother shortening anything: you just cut it off.