I'm in the process of systematically cutting back my larger bushes. They've gotten too big for me to handle and deadhead, especially from my scooter. Bushes 6 feet tall are being cut down to one foot. So far everyone I've done has come back nicely. Several large Explorers and rugosas have been cut back or are being done. My goal is to get them all done by mid July. All mine are own root so I don't worry about grafts. My advice: Don't be limited by the 1/3 or 2/3 rule. Cut back what you want. BTW, I expect mine to bloom again this season. Some repeat bloomers done earlier are already setting buds.

I'm sure it won't hurt, just build up your trough with the mulch and don't lay it too thick on the inside so water can easily get through it, maybe an inch or so? Mom always did that with hers, keeps the roots cool and wet. You can also find some type of ground cover to plant around it next season, or whenever you are done moving it around lol. Something that can handle being trimmed if necessary is and fast growing, but won't take all the food from the rose. There's this stuff here in Indiana that's got little yellow flowers and creeps over the ground, grows like a weed just about anywhere and can take over if you're not careful, really resistant to both wet and dry weather and can handle hard freezes and blaring sun with no worries; we put it in all of our empty-looking flower beds that have big, tall plants but it chokes out smaller things like hyacinth (don't know if I spelled that right... oops). After a quick Google search I found the name of it, Czar's Gold Sedum. The link is a place to buy it and the only one I could find that looks like ours, not sure if it will grow well where you're at but hopefully it will help give you a place to start looking if you want to give something like it a try. :3 Here is a link that might be useful: Czars Gold Sedum, takes a bit of scrolling down to find it This post was edited by SasorisPuppet on Fri, Apr 11, 14 at 11:15

I just reread the last part of what you wrote. I'm getting old with ya. You probably don't remember the blooms because the rose was grafted. The grafted variety died leaving the root stock Dr. Huey to grow. Then when you have pruned it your taking off the wood for next years blooms. Don't prune at all this time until it blooms in 2017. Then when it's done blooming prune some it you wish or let it grow for another year.

I think there is some bacteria that will help get rid of the chemical they will absorb it and others will eat them. The ameoba and parameciams and protozoa that we learned about in 9th grade. Eventually the microbes will ameliorate. I like that word ameliorate the soil. It's your garden. Put what you want there. Maybe if you take some good soil from a place that you know grows good plants and sprinkle it on top it will rain down the good microbes. Maybe some good Organic fertilizers at the plant nursery will be good to sprinkle and make the soil good again. Don't they have something called starter fertilizers? To get the good things going again? I think rain eventually takes it away and it dissapates in the air and water and water vapor and the microbes.