I would leave the poor thing alone to recuperate from all of the pruning and the new neighbors. Since you have already fed her, I would not feed again until you see lots of new growth - just make sure she is getting enough water and let her get on with recovering from the shock.

Jackie

My original Madame came with the house (5 years ago), a huge old plant planted alongside a treated pine arbour. At first she was a sickly, rusty thing but when I walked out one mornoing to find the whole garden saturated with the scent of just one open bloom, I had to keep her and have since bought her a sister which I planted against another pillar. the canes grow very tall, so I either tie them up to the wire of the arbour or cut them. Ideally you should peg them out, but I dont have space for that, so I just chop off whatever looks awkward. It's not a pretty plant, inheriting ugly canes from its damask parents and sprawling dendancies from the Chinas, but the blooms make up for it. Now that I have improved the sandy soil with bentonite (cat litter) and have been giving more regular organic fertiliser, the foliage is looking really good and she is putting out new canes left-right and centre.

I would give yours a good thick mulching with lupin mulch or sillilar and a drench with sea-weed tonic (not a fertiliser) to promote new canes from the base. Then, if you can, peg them out along the ground. Don't try and keep the stiunted old canes living. It seems to go better when you cut them off after theyre spent (as you have) and alow them to be replaced from the base. But thats just my experience.

This may help.

http://www.vintagerosery.com/roses/madameisaacpereire_.htm

To help your Madame Isaac recover, give it lots of water and TLC in the form of compost, manure, seaweed drenches, Super Thrive, Mykos, Sea Hume, ad infinitum, and mulch the root zone. Cultivate the soil around the bush. Sing to the bush. Make sure it lacks for nothing.

As for the pruning -- I'm not convinced this caused the bush to sulk.

A healthy Madame Isaac is a pretty vigorous rose. Every summer, I have to thin both of mine out by removing about a third of the canes. Then by the end of the season, the bush has put on so much new growth, that it has to be thinned again.

One of my Mme Isaacs grows on an arch. The other is on a wide pipe trellis. As for pegging -- make sure you have the space to pull this off.

Madame Isaac is a grand rose. I hope yours recovers.

Younger canes tend to bloom better than older canes.

Thanks for your input, people! How I wish all those seaweed, etc organic products were readily available here! but I will do what I can with alfalfa,manure, etc.
The fact is, the area in question of my garden does have really awful soil-lots of building debris, etc-and I planted this rose about 10 years ago, before I knew much (anything!) about soil improvement. Often it's easier just to dig up a rose and re-do the soil from scratch, but I don't want to do this for this 10-year-old rose. I'm going to try the TLC method. However, now I am beginning to think about moving my 2nd, much younger, own-root MIP to a better spot, because my 3rd MIP (the youngest of all) which is growing in gooey clay,is the most vigorous of the three. Likewise, MIP's relative, Mme E. Calvat, also in clay, is doing very well,so it may just be that the soil in those other two areas is just too sandy and crummy. I agree that MIP is indeed a grand rose, and it deserves decent treatment! bart

Out of all my roses, MIP is the one most sensitive to drought. I would not attempt to move a MIP plant at this time of year unless it is really necessary. I would wait until winter / rainy season.
Nik

This post was edited by nikthegreek on Thu, Apr 24, 14 at 7:49

Bart, so sorry to hear about your MIP! I am not a drastic pruner, but this harsh winter took the matter out of my hands with a lot of my roses, so I'm sort of in the same boat, though I'm lucky enough to have garden soil. I had a thought, possibly dumb, that I thought I'd run by others more knowledgeable - could Bart bury raw fish (parts, bones, etc) around the plant to get some of the benefits of fish emulsion? Sort of the Squanto's Secret idea?

Or would that just be asking for critters to dig around the plant? Or, could she make the equivalent of seaweed fertilizer out of dry seaweed? (I'm sure she could get somebody in the US to send her some, since I bet its hard to find in Italy).

In any event, best of luck Bart! MIP is indeed a glorious rose, and for all it is so gorgeous, not a diva or a wimp, unlike some of the old beauties (I'm looking right at you, Ardoisée de Lyon!)

I think Frances has a good point.
Rather than trying to move a stressed plant, have you considered vertical mulching?
Badically you use a sharp spade to dig a few deep narrow holes around the root plate and back fill with good compost. I've also done it with a dead possum to good effect :)

I don't want to move this old MIP,and certainly wouldn't try to move anything now (tried it once; almost a total failure. I can't even successfully plant out potted roses very easily in this climate! Spring is not the time for planting stuff out,qui in Italia!),so never fear.I hope to get around to the "vertical mulching" thing soon.Btw,I have found that to keep those naughty wanimals away from fishy kitchen scraps it seems to be helpful to cover the goodies with wood ashes and/or betonite kitty litter. This seems to absorb the smell...I say "seems", because I can just imagine that, after writing this, I go out to my land and find messy traces from beastios,lol!
Fact is, there are so many areas of my garden that need soil improvement that it's always a competition for which one will get the next batch of garbage... bart