Okay, went out for pics and the cane is four feet, not five. But it has EIGHT blooms, not four or five! :o)

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How old is the bush? You may not be allowing enough time for it to mature. And remember we get a lot of winter dieback that keeps the climbers shorter until later in the season. My Aloha is acting similar to yours except the rain is causing the blooms to get brown edges and many not to open p[roperly. The stiff shorter canes will not grow taller but proper pruning can cause new canes to grow from them. These may get tall. I have mine planted next to my satellite dish and it's only about 3 feet tall with one cane a little taller. I'm not concerned. Didn't I tell you once to be patient? Mine's only two years old.

Thanks for letting me know on the shorter caanes not getting taller. Any thoughts on my other questions?

Oh, and this was a potted bareroot purchased locally that went into the gorund last Fall. Incidentally, this is alos the plant my son ran over while still in it's pot in the driveway. Pretty tough, eh?

Karl, how much doeback does yours get?

I am not in your zone, but have grown Aloha for years. Recently I have moved it from its position as a climber to another section in the yard where it is a standard.

One thing that I think it is important to remember is that the first bloom in the spring is left over stength from the previous fall. Experts can rephrase this to be more factual, but the point is that the first bloom is not a true indication of the health of the rose.

The winter can be harsh, and can really zap a rose, but the first bloom can look good, then the rose can deteriorate. If we are not careful in my zone, we may wait until it is too hot to replace the rose. We keep on thinking it is vigorous, but it is really dying. We can cut it back, baby it, and bring it on again, but those first canes that bloomed may stop because there is nothing significant going on in those canes. You need to get it to produce more canes.

Aloha has very large canes, and is not very flexible. It will grow very tall here, and has been classified as a climber, but I am hoping that it will perform well as a standard. Mine is blooming ok, but it does need to grow roots, and right now we have had multiple days in temps over 100. Roses are not too vigorous when it is that hot.

Sammy

I'd stake that cane. Laterals will grow from that basal and those will also bloom.

I'm not at all happy with Aloha. For the last 2 years the blooms have not opened at all, and are all yucky. They remain all balled up and finally turn brown and then they get pruned off. I was just outside giving it a talking to this a.m. Maybe I should show it your pic for inspiration, Green. And when it does warm up so I can have any hope of getting proper blooms, it becomes a JB magnet big time.

For the first time ever in 10 years, it died down to the ground over the winter. Last year it grew so tall it reached the eaves of the garage; I had to grab a ladder and stake it. Otherwise, it grows on its own without support.

It had just better quit the silliness; otherwise I'm gonna show it the shovel and put in something else I do believe.
-t

Aloha is a shrubby semi-climber with the habit of an overgrown hybrid tea. It will climb in stages if supported-- I don't see a support-- or it can be a large shrub with shrub pruning. Occasionally it may produce a 6-8' climber shoot from the base. You need to tell us what you want this plant to do.

It does have trouble in some weathers with deformed buds and balling. However, I can't think of another rose that has its combination of disease resistance, winter hardiness, full repeat bloom, and large, fragrant flowers on cutting stems.

Michael, any suggestions on what I can do to keep it from balling? The blooms just remained in tight little balls and just dried up; those that did open were malformed and had dark, ugly centers. It does have great disease resistance and is winter hardy, but I am growing it for the luscious coral blooms, not the foliage. What can I do to help it out? Any thoughts?
-t

Terryjean,

Apparently the deformed buds are caused by chilly weather occurring when the buds are small. It happens mainly to the first flush and not every year. This year I got about 75% good flowers. If you have bad JBs and get only three flushes, I can see why a bad first flush would be a major concern. However, I think two years is too soon to be thinking about the shovel.

Balling seems to happen mostly to flowers that are already deformed with too many short petals.

It's even happening with the subsequent blooms later in the season. But by then the JBs are ravaging them, so it's hard to tell if they would even get a chance to open. I did put in 'Moonlight', another Kordes climber, and I'm really liking it so far. Another great Kordes and the JBs are ignoring it...so far anyway.

I'll wait it out another year and see if the balling problem gets any better...like I said, this isn't a new climber; it's at least 10 years old.
-t

Sammy,
What do you mean when you say, "I have moved it from its position as a climber to another section in the yard where it is a standard."
It sound like you trained it as a tree rose which is what the term "standard" refers to?

Or did you mean you're letting it grow as a regular bush?
I'm just looking for clarification.

Well, I was sort of planning on this being a tall . I knew it is sort of a climber, but also knew it had really stiff canes not suitable for climbing. I would be happy with a tall, upright shrub if it can take the pruning for it. I read somewhere that it doesn't like heavy pruning.

I was reading another thread where they were discussing Laffter, a REALLY tall HT and I don't want a plant that like that, that has naked legs and blooms so high I can't enjoy them. Michael, what did you mean by "It will climb in stages if supported?" (I probably should stake that cane. I would hate to lose it.) If that tall cane would grow leaterals...that would be awesome! But is it like a typical climber that really wants to be in "the bloom-a-rama zone" (as per P Zimmerman, haha!)to grow those laterals? I.e., trained at 45 degrees or less?

Sammy, thanks for your input! I understand the concept of the first flush being last winter's stored energy, I assign that to the short canes that already bloomed this year. But this tall cane is brand new this spring.

I have two of them, one for a very long time.

When you deadhead a vertical cane, it will typically produce two vertical laterals, just as a HT would, but the laterals might run 2-4' long. So it can get very tall in a season even if it produces no climber-type basals.

The one I am growing as a shrub I cut back by around half in spring and then take something off each shoot when I deadhead, so the flowers stay within reach. When you do this, with repeated branching it develops enough stems to give a large flush, say 80-100 on a 5'-6' wide plant. It does spread and arch some, but blooms only on the upper half of the plant. This year I pruned to about 4', which may have been too high, as it has bare legs and no new basals so far. Next year I'll prune harder and trade some first-flush bloom for more foliage.

The other one is 20 years old, growing in a spot with meager sun and shallow soil over rock, so it has not been very vigorous but still repeated well. I have grown it as a climber, preserving the long basal shoots when they (infrequently) come along. I've neglected the recommended practice of removing an old basal or two every spring, so the main canes got senile and declined in productivity. This spring I hacked it all the way down to see what would happen (not recommended), and it made new basal growth immediately. So I can't confirm that it resents hard pruning.

Wow, two very different scenarios! You have given me some excellent advice, I appreciate it.

Oops, Karl. I wouldn't try to grow a standard. My mistake. I put Aloha in the front of the house, and am growing it as a regular rose.

Sammy

Sorry that last post was so curt, my ride had arrived and it was time to leave!

Michaelg, what I was planning to say was that I will probably subscribe mostly to the first situation, as long as it seems to make the rose happy.

So, though, if I prune that large cane down a little after it is done blooming it should send out some laterals?

sammy, how much pruning does your Aloha take?

Terryjean--I have the same problem as you on my new Aloha. Yucky blooms that either failed to open--or did open, but were all discolored and malformed with weird, ugly vegetative centers and rot in the middle. It's been a relatively wet June in the Midwest, and those buds seem to take SOOOO long to develop, I'm guessing they're just uniquely prone to botrytis and temperature damage. If I can't get a decent flush out of it this summer, though, it's gone. I went out a couple weeks ago to cut off all the ugliness--not one good bloom--and there's only so much of that I'm willing to take.