Well, I am usually an advocate for waiting three years, but you have MY permission.
In my Southern California garden, GT was one of those "lovely bloom on a cruddy plant" situations.

I don't believe anyone should continue to grow roses which simply do not please them.
No matter the reason.
No matter who else may love them.

Jeri

Something I've done when aggravated with a rose is to cut it down and put it into a pot. Probation, so to speak. I can move it around to see if its issues are because of sun or air circulation.

Or sometimes I happily yank and pitch and it makes me happy to have done so.

How aggravated are you?

Winter kill is not a problem for GT here in Sacramento. Gigantic, limber, arching growth is. I get a great bloom in the spring and then just about nothing the rest of the year.

A friend grows hers in the full sun and cuts it back after the first bloom and gets a good rebloom. I have no place to move mine to, and consider SPing it 50 weeks out of the year. For two weeks, it's gorgeous.
Anita

I think Duchesse is right on. Last year I was highly annoyed with Mary Rose after a summer of PM, almost no bloom and long, straggly looking foliage. So we dug her up, put her in a big pot, tried a new location and then to overwinter buried the pot in the garden. This year Mary Rose is what I was hoping for. I'm glad I didn't get rid of her but I was at the end of my tether. The only reason she wasn't composted was she was a Christmas gift from my MIL.

Kate

I'm thinking of getting rid of mine, will see what it does after the winter (it comes back pretty well from almost the ground). If I wait until spring, I can dig it out and have something lined to go in w/o digging twice. One measly bloom then nothing.

It's in too much shade and don't know if there IS a replacement that will do anything there, but Thomas Affleck is a candidate.

Unless there is a better candidate as a replacement. Even if it surprises me and blooms well, I don't want any more yellow roses (JB magnets).

As to yours, based on feedback, if you really think they aren't going to do much, I think you could arrange for replacements and do it all at once in late Aug or so and replant, may be better to wait until early spring if you are going to replace them to give the new ones a better start and have a full growing season to prepare better for winter. Just my 2 cents.

Actually, we did dig ours up, and put it in a pot, preparing to move it.

It promptly died, un-mourned.

Jeri

Call me spoiled, but after two years in the ground I'd like a rose that willingly reblooms without too much fuss. There are too many good roses out there to waste time on a poor performer. I want to go outside and see happy roses!

Ingrid

Oh no, I hope to hear some positive comments about GT because I have a one-year old that I am counting on to perform as it is one of only 2 yellow roses among my 70 plus rose bushes. It has been healthy, (growing on a rebar tripod), but I don't want a stingy bloomer....I have plenty of those!
Molly

Yank it like you're starting a mower - that's what I did. : ) Actually, I gave mine away. It rebloomed fine, I just didn't like the tea scent and it was enormous.

I noticed that the neighbor a few house down dug up her Graham Thomas.
I was sad to see it go, because in the spring its blooms were very beautiful.
But other than spring, it didn't seem to ever have blooms on it, and the plant itself was, well, unhappy looking to put it kindly.

Randy

Well, I planted Morden Sunrise last year and it's been a WONDERFUL yellow for my climate. Rabbits chewed it to the ground over winter, and it's rebounded to about 3-4' tall and has bloomed all summer. Why can't Graham do that?? I thought about cross pollinating them and raising some seedlings - but darn it, GT has to bloom for that to happen!

Anyway, I'm going to whack the grafted GT and keep the own root - for now. Thanks for the moral support. :-)

jardineratx, if you'd like a beautiful yellow rose that blooms a lot may I suggest Cl. Lady Hillingdon. It will take two years to get established, as most climbers do, but afterwards you'll have a graceful climber that blooms a lot for most of the year and is non-fuss. Celine Forestier is also wonderful and is giving me some blooms now, after one year.

Ingrid

On the other hand I cheerfully grow a number of once blooming roses. However I didn't really like my GT, one of the first roses I planted when we moved to this house about twelve years ago. Mine died all by itself, so I didn't have to make any decisions.

Rosefolly

Rosefolly, I do, too. And I plant more of them every year. Some of the once bloomers are nice yellows like Harison's Yellow and Father Hugo (I **need** Canary Bird, bad :-)).

If GT had a to-die-for once a year flush, that would certainly help.

Come to think of it, I am not crazy about many of my yellows. Leverkusen and Carefree Sunshine are taking their time to get established, and Molineaux is not great here, either.

The yellow Bucks seem to do a little better.

I have a GT growing happily - even though it only gets about 3 hours of full sun a day. The only problem I had with it is that I stupidly believed the English theory of how tall it would get (3-4 feet!), and planted it in a flower bed in the middle of my driveway. My husband has since built it a large metal structure to climb on, which it does to about 10 feet, and late in the summer it throws out canes that would go another 6-8 feet above that if I would let them! So, if I bought one now I would treat it as a tall climber, and plant it accordingly. Mine is not sprayed at all, and has no diseases. I prune it down to about 4 feet every winter, and it blooms prolifically in the Spring. Then it re-blooms all summer and into Fall if I continue to dead head it, which I do because it always needs shaping to keep it on its climbing structure, from which it is always trying to escape. Right now it is covered with flowers, and I love the roses for cutting, too. So, my vote is a positive - maybe it is happier in our warm climate than in colder ones.

I always wait three years on a rose I really want to succeed. Sometimes it takes that long for the roots to really get going and the top to grow the way it is supposed to. That said, if the plant is miserly, miserable and ugly, I don't hesitate to shove prune. My experience the GT is a very mixed one. I have had it in my garden for 14 years and would only very reluctantly take it out. It is extremely vigorous and takes some work to keep it under control. It blooms every 6-7 weeks in long-lasting flushes. The individual flowers don't last particularly long, but clean off nicely. It is very susceptible to blackspot in my cool, damp coastal climate. I've been known in years when we've had too much fog and damp to completely defoliate the plant and prune it back by half to two thirds in July. Even then, it comes back like something out a horror movie -- stronger and more menacing than ever. I love the color, the vigor, the huge quantity of blooms I get and the lovely form. Without the vigor though, it would probably have to go.
So, I guess it's up to you whether you really want this plant or not. There are lots of other roses to grow!

Ahhh! Nooo! I was so excited because I found GT at a nursery down island yesterday and bought it! It was at the top of my list of must-have roses, and that's the first time I've seen it since I started looking for it. I sure hope it's happy in my climate. FWIW, it's currently COVERED in buds, and the foliage looks extremely happy. It is own root, so hopefully that works in my favour.

Nice to know it will flourish in 3 hrs sun, mine gets about 4 or 5, that was one of my concerns about mine. The main cane has what I think is canker so maybe that bodes ill for the entire plant, but it's own root and putting up new healthy cane not off the main one. It also gets those purple spots on leaves from the older part, can't remember what that is but no BS or other maladies so far.

Just when I thought it was a dud, I don't pay much attention to it, I'm tending a clematis I wanted to grow in combo w/it, and it has 3 pretty blooms on it. I don't want to it bloom during JB season anyway. So it might just be a good rose for me, depending on what the loss of the main cane will cause. Let's just say I have some that I like much less and plan to sp. Rosemoor now has healthy foliage but don't like it, same with Geoff Hamilton and a couple others whose names escape me. This is only the 2nd year for all the ones in front.

I love mine. He blooms all through the summer (though I disbud him during Japanese beetle season)and is blooming again now. I love the color and the flower shape, though not the scent. Lady Hillingdon's taking her time getting established, but that could be because there's a very aggressive butterfly bush near her roots. Back to Graham, I loved mine enough to move him when we moved to this house four years ago. (Good thing--the new owner mowed down all my roses and perennials and planted grass.) But if you're happy having axed him, then that means there's room for something you like better now. :-)

I had GT once upon a time. Thought it was the best yellow, until I got Golden Celebration - grown side by side. GT died all of a sudden a number of seasons ago. Golden Celebration continued to grow in leaps an bounds, and has now overtaken the space allocated to GT. And that was that - the end of GT. (Well, not quite, because I still have one in a pot rooted from the original.)

I never figured why GT died - someone told me it's "graft failure". I didn't think so, as the rootstock would have taken over. In retrospect, I think it died of shame, as it simply could not compete with Golden Celebration for vigour, size and rebloom.

"I think it died of shame, as it simply could not compete with Golden Celebration for vigour, size and rebloom."

That must be why the own root GT I planted next to Prairie Harvest died - pure shame. :-)))) I like GC, too.

I was stubborn with GT..had several and all somewhat duds until a got one from Vintage..here it is in the summer in s.fl in only its second year..it has been blooming more and more.

{{gwi:305157}}

Mari

I'd never sp it. I rooted a backup plant in case something happened to my main plant. My original plant is in a bed with several other Austins and has much less bs than the others this year. Right now it's trying to have a second flush, but the heat is crisping the blooms. It is not a bad rebloomer, and for me is lots healthier than GC.
It's a trouper in drought and heat.
Linda

If you cut GT back after each flush, he will rebloom well. Mine has several huge flushes every year by doing this. He has much less blackspot than GC did here! GC completely defoliated. Of course, that is just in my climate and ultimately you don't need permission to dig up a rose that you don't like. I do try to give them a few years to establish and show what they can do but if you really dislike GT that much, then dig away.

Carol