I'll try to remember to take pictures of my ROS in the morning and post them for you. I've cut all mine as standards. As jenny says, it takes patience to train a shrub into tree-form, but luckily ROS grow so fast you don't have to wait too long! As I recall, I started with whips from my mothers yard. (These are just the common, lavender-with-a-red-eye ROS.) I planted mine at the corner of the apartment building, and another set at the corner of the property aolong the fence and the alley. By the second summer, they were a good 5' high, and I began cutting off all the branches below 3-4'. By their third summer, they were all between 8 and 12' tall, a height they've maintained for the last three years. I simply prune off all the branches as high as I can reach. I had some vandalism, with trunks broken off on the plants in the alley, and I let one of the ones in the front grow with a fork in the trunk at about 3' high, but I think they are beautiful in this shape, especially in a small city garden. There are some drawbacks. The weight of the seedpods can sometimes pull the branches way down, and if there is a lot of seed pods left on the branches over winter they can catch a lot of snow, and the weight dragging down the branches can sometimes cause them to split off the tree. Mine have gotten so tall I can't clip off as many of the seedpods as I like, so I tie the "trees" together and to something -- drainpipe, fence post -- just to keep the branches from breaking off. By spring, I release them, and the all sigh and spread out a little bit. Pretty plants, and incredibly hardy for something so delicate looking. If I was doing it again, tho' I'd get one of those sterile versions.....

When I prune my roses in spring I use the heaviest leather type. They are they only ones none of my roses have never managed to cut trough, pretty close to 100%. I often use no gloves at all, but when I need to lift a bunch of thorny off cuts, or handle canes a bit more than lightly I put on these. I actually think they are welding gloves, and they reach half way up to my elbow, nothing like the ones I see for gardeners. I have several types of gloves, but all I really use are these heavy ones, a pair of lighter leather gloves, and no gloves at all. I mostly use bare hands when I plant, and dig holes. I have started using glycerin hand cream when my hands get too dry and sore. I am a man, so I don't feel too guilty when gardening or work shows on my hands. I have to admit that it takes a day or two before all traces of gardening are gone when I don't use gloves, which I agree, really isn't that good. Even though I use soap and water several times, it's stuck there for a while.

i pruned, shovel-pruned and replanted at the beginning of November so i have lots blooming right now! Maggie and Bishop's Castle are the ones to beat, they should be named everblooming roses. Sharifa Asma is not far behind and covered in blooms and buds right now. Baby Mlle. Jeanne Philippe just opened a few delicate apricot flowers that faded to pink and baby Lundy's Lane yellow popped out a single, gorgeous, buff yellow bloom. It's a found pernetiana but this first bloom reminds me of the teas. Lady Emma is still very shy about making and keeping leaves but she continues to make those amazingly scented flowers so i keep her. Baby Belinda's Dream has produced a few HUGE peonies of ruffled pink. Love it! DbB is the queen of the garden and just taking a break in between amazing flushes. She is finally old enough to scent her flowers and always seems to keep a few pink seashell blossoms on hand. Her sister Duquesa, just a baby, teases me with the hope that she will be a very good rose. Abraham Darby continues to somehow escape the shovel and has covered his small self with buds. Jude is a much better roses and budded up as well. Gruss an Aachen spend the summer hiding under the lantana with WS 2000. They are a bit worse for wear but blooming. i'd forgotten how beautiful GaA can be. Molineux is another workhorse pumping out flowers shaded from lemon yellow to dark apricot. Short and very upright habit tho, really should be grouped in threes. And my favorite rose, La Reine i think, although i am not entirely sure about the ID. Bushy and covered in buds again. She repeat several times a year-four or five maybe? i would keep her even if it was less often. Oops, sorry...i seem to have gotten carried away! Well, roses will do that to you and i know you'll understand ; ) Celeste-Fantastic!

Easy question, since I see that you're in Southern California. The Armstrong's Garden Centers have a great selection -- I see 64 varieties on 36" standards, and some more on 48" standards and then a few more of those "twofer" varieties. Here's the link if you want to preorder a bare root tree for January pickup. But I also have a MUCH better idea. I was in my local Armstrong's this weekend (San Juan Capistrano store), and they still have a great selection from the last year's group, and they just went on their annual "half off" sale. Just tell them you got an email announcing it (which those of us on their email list did) and they'll honor it even if the signs aren't out yet. A Wing Ding Tree almost jumped in my cart, but I held him off successfully. They also had some really, really tall weeping roses on standards that had to be 7 or 8 feet -- way over my head. One of those was Renae, which also had to be pushed out of my cart. Given the right location, they would be spectacular. Unfortunately I don't have such a location. But half off can't be beat, so make a tour of a few local Armstrongs and see what's still in stock in the stores near you. And what's in the store is often times different and better than the things they put on the pre-order list. Here is a link that might be useful: Armsotrong's 36