I don't have any of the others but my Graham Thomas has taken over the entire corner of the yard and is getting huge. I haven't measured the canes but I'd say in the 7' - 8' range right now. I think you will have to go after him with a whip and chair if you want him orderly. He's 3 years old and one cane is the size of my thumb. Next spring I'm going to have to move the rose he's completely covered. But I like him this way, so it's not a problem here.

You can cut back Graham Thomas as much or as little as you want. If you let it get too big it will have long arching canes which it wont be able to support. It will just sprawl all over the place.

Are the canes that hardy throughout the winter? I was assuming so considering I saw some Graham Thomas's in MN that were up to the roof of people's homes, but I was unsure of how much of a risk it might be for GT and PA/WS2000 as far as risk of the rose dying over the winter or having tremendous amounts of cane die back.

How much growth did you see out of your Graham Thomas plants in the first year and how much do you usually prune back...if at all for winter? My Graham is doing quite well so far. He made the transition into the ground quite well and has numerous buds on him for his size. As of right now I have GT next to a wood fence that is about 6ft tall. I actually wouldn't mind if GT grew up large beside the fence and peaked over into the neighbor's yard. I don't have any long term concerns on size as long as it's not detrimental to the rose as far as upright growth and winter survival.

Jeff,
We have 2 Wm. Shakespeare 2000s. One is grafted on multiflora from Pickering, and the other is own-root from Roses Unlimited. The blooms are gorgeous, but the bushes aren't very tall. The grafted one could use a little more sun, the other is the newer own-root one, so I haven't seen it bloom yet (got last year). I am very impressed with them though. They need more time to get established.

We have had Pat Austin for about 6-7 years. We always have to prune our roses down to about 3-6" (except for the Explorers) in April (to good wood)...so, by the end of August, they tend to be not more than 2-3 feet tall I'd say. Pat has definitely gotten better as the years have gone by....I almost shovel-pruned her after 2-3 years, because the blooms had weak necks, and she didn't get very big. I'm glad I didn't. I was just noticing how tall she has gotten this year compared to years past, and it looks like she'll bloom pretty soon.

We had Graham Thomas for a season, but lost it during our first winter....think it may have been due to the way we winterized it...we do things differently now and rarely lose any.
We ended up replacing GT with Golden Celebration (x2). GC gets about 4-5 feet here. Love it.
:0) Phyl

I have Pat Austin and Graham Thomas side by side in their third year, and growth habits have been almost identical. Pruned to about 2 1/2ft in mid-March, they are at about 5ft, though Graham Thomas may be a few inches taller than Pat Austin now. Also, both are in full sun all day, except Graham Thomas will get a little shade from an Austrian Pine late in the day. There are other unsupported Graham Thomas roses in the neighborhood that don't get pruned hard and get to 7-8ft. I don't know how they survive the awful winds we have, but they seem to thrive.

Gary

WS2000 is 3ft tall x 4 feet wide right now... it reminds me of a crab... I moved the roses that were next to it away so that it could continue to sprawl in an outward manner...

I grow all 3 in zone 5. All 3 have winterkill each winter down to about 3-6 inches, like phylrae says. Some people in the south say Abraham Darby can be a small climber, but I have had 2 of them for years and they rarely grow over 4-5 feet. WS2000 for me grows to about 3 feet. Pat Austin, I have had the same experience as phylrae, my 2 are still small and nod, maybe a little bigger this year, but as of yet have not grown past 2-1/2 feet.

Thanks guys for the info. That was kind of what I was originally thinking. I was curious because geodave lives in z4 MN, yet his graham thomas is massive somehow.
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My Graham Thomas dies down to 3-6 inches each winter as well.

I wish I knew how GeoDave got his GT so big and beautiful. Maybe he heavily winter protects that rose? Or maybe this photo was taken later in the season after it's been growing all summer? Lots of alfalfa tea?

I'm wondering about those of you that love Graham Thomas, do you have him in full afternoon sun? Does it get hot where you live?
Mine has beautiful blooms that drop their petals almost the same day they open, but they are so beautiful I haven't been able to get rid of it. Do your blooms last?

The very first question is: are the roses on rootstock that thrive in your soil? If your soil is shallow, or if the roots only thrive in a shallow cone of 'good' soil, then you're not going to get height, regardless of your zone.
When the original poster buys a rose, he's buying a rose that has already been pampered beyond belief, in a green house or poly house, planted in soils that are totally unlike the real world, and fed the rosey equivalent of fois gras, lobster, and eclairs to make it grow. Nothing any of us can do inthe real world will equal that kind of pampering for twelve months of the year. Well, maybe some folks in California's cooler summer/warmer winters areas can approach it, but weather survival wasn't designed into the genetics of modern roses.
Not all rootstocks are alike, some force roses to grow 12 months of the year, others may help dormancy happen. Some soils are better for Dr. Huey; other soils will make roses on R. multiflora wonderful plants; still other areas demand R. x fortuniana to overcome soil problems.

About public gardens....go there earliest spring. Be sure you're comparing roses there with your own roses by starting to see if their roses made it through winter. We've been to some northern public gardens in early spring and I've been shocked at the number of roses that are replaced in a given year.
It's not fair of you to evaluate your home roses by comparing them to roses that last year were in California, and only recently exposed to the last gasps of an Ohio winter.

FWIW, I had a hedge of 24 Graham Thomases in east Tennessee. Their main problem was a tendency to put out spring growth early in spring, and that growth would get killed, dependably, by later spring freezes. That frozen growth would then be the locus of a nasty canker that would gird and kill the cane by mid June. The most cankers I have ever counted on a single cane was thirteen on one single cane of Graham Thomas. So, I'd guess Dave protects his GT.