Congrats on your new home! :)

Yes the rose certainly can be renewed with pruning. If it is extremely upright it may be a shrub/bush type rose that just never got pruned. A hybrid tea rose left unpruned can get very, very tall. With a very old plant you want to take it slow. Cutting out anything dead is a good place to begin. Then taking out just one unproductive cane (branch or stem) down to the ground, seeing how the plant reacts (good or bad) will tell you how to proceed further.

If it has nice flowers that you like a lot, taking some cuttings and starting new plants would be an easy, fun, free way to move it to another, sunnier location.

Well, I have never done it but I agree with the first reply. I would take off all the dead stuff, plus one old cane all the way down to the bottom. If the plant makes new canes, you can train them easily. If it doesn't, I would still try to save it by pruning one or two canes as far down as you want the new growth to start and see if it branches out from there. I would definitely do a little at a time, maybe over the course of 2 years or so. I would want to see how the plant reacts before continuing, you know? Plus you can always plant stuff at the bottom to cover the woody parts if all else fails.

Thank you so much! Here's the picture I promised. Actually, a roofer I had working on my house took out a rather large cane when he carelessly flopped his ladder in my yard. I'll start with taking that one down to the ground since it's already broken down to about 3 feet.

Can you tell anything about the rose from this less-than-ideal photo? The picture was taken from the ground with a zoom. Some of the foliage you see is from a lilac tree that is enmeshed with this fence-line hodge podge.

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Thanks so much for your help.

Lisa

It almost looks like it could be a climbing hybrid tea, but I don't know whether any of them would grow that well in your area. I lived in the Philadelphia area most of my life and I can't recall ever seeing people grow them much, but on the other hand you did mention the former owner was a gardener.

Does Climbing Queen Elizabeth look like this??? (I've never seen it.)

My first thought on seeing the photo was Queen Elizabeth. Non-climbing Queen Elizabeth, left to its own devices, will get very tall.

I don't know that I would take anything completely down to the ground at all. I would take a more moderate approach, maybe taking it down by half, just to see how it responds. If it gets back up to 10' tall, then you can do an aggressive pruning.

Can you post a shot of the whole plant so that we can see its structure? It would be helpful to know if it's truly a climber or if it's a large HT (Zone 6, not sure how large is to be expected of QE).

Contrary to popular belief, pruning isn't something we do because our neighbors cut all their roses to knee high. Pruning is for training, for removal of old, dead or damaged wood, for controlling shape and/or size, or, in some roses, for stimulating new growth. Climbers grow differently from shrub roses, so a good ID will be very helpful for those here to help you stimulate new growth and renew your plant.

To state the obvious, you can do a lot for your rose by pruning the surrounding shrubs, so they don't impinge on your rose's sun. Bear in mind that those shrubs may provide winter protection for your rose, though.

I'd go slowly with pruning the rose itself. Old plants can be extremely reluctant to produce new basal canes. This year, I'd give it TLC: clean out old wood, deadhead, mulch the base with compost, forming a 4 foot diameter circle around the rose, and fertilize in the springtime. Providing regular water in the summer and more sunshine can do a lot for a rose.

In zone 6b Non-climbing Queen Elizabeth can be 10', no problem. My sister grows it and it is higher then second level of her deck, even with good pruning in spring.
Olga

I have climbing QE, it will grow to 20+ feet if allowed. And it is extremely thorny. The bloom color/form look correct for either climbing or bush form QE.

I would do as suggested, you removed one large cane from the base, remove any long laterals from the other canes. Fertilize and if you get any new canes, try to train them horizontally so that will cause more laterals, which will give you more bloom lower on the plant.

It does look like QE. Since it blooms, it's probably not Climbing QE but the shrub form. This is a good, reliable rose. Enjoy.

Do put the mulch, compost is good, but remember to keep it at least a few inches from the base of the plant. This helps to protect the base of the rose from disease or rot.

Thanks so much for all of the advice. I will baby this rose and see what happens. It's great to know what you think it is.

One bit of coincidence is that I saw that the QE was introduced in 1954, which was the year that the previous owners bought the house.

When it blooms, I'll post a picture of another mystery rose that came with the house. It's a deep red/burgundy with a yellow center. Right now the only picture I have is the rose bunched in this arrangement. The pink blooms are from what looks like a rambler on the neighbor's side of the fence line. I think about the woman who gardened here before me (and passed away in 2007) when I am working in the gardens. I like to think she'd be pleased. In the cut flower arrangement, you can also see some of the many irises she clearly loved.

Thanks again,

Lisa

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Another "mistery rose" could be Dr Huey, many burgundy roses with yellow stamens left in old houses are. This is a rootstock, original grafted rose died, but rootstock survived.
Olga

What Olga said!

I also see the former owner loved Siberian Iris! I love them, too. There is a pair of nationally known Siberian Iris breeders about an hour's drive west of me.

deep red/burgundy with a yellow center.

Yes, that's probably Dr. Huey, rootstock.