Before the leaves grow out of it next spring, around St. Patty's Day, or sooner if you see any kind of growth,
buy long handled pruners, a pair of real good garde gloves, have an empty plastic trash can and elmers glue.
THen, looking at the bush, first, cut off all dark brown, dead canes. Cut them off to the main stem. Put elmers glue on the wound after the cut.
After cutting all the dead (dark brown dead looking) canes (branches cutting off main trunk), cut the bush to the height that you want. Stand back and see the frame of the bush and cut it the shape and size you want.
Be careful, roses have thorns, so ear the gloves and use the pruners to pick up the cut pieces to put in the trash can.
Then apply mulch if the bush isn't mulched already, but not right up to the trunk, leave some room.
Roses are very resiliant shrubs, and after the bush starts to grow leaves, buy some Rose food and apply as per instructions on bottle. It will bloom better for you if you feed it.
GOod luck and enjoy your rose.

The above is excellent advice. I would only add, when it blooms in the Spring take some pictures (of the entire bush, single blooms, leaves, etc.) and post them on here and someone will probably be able to identify it for you. Good Luck!

Jackie

Welcome to the Garden Web! It sounds like you got yourself a beautiful rose! It may be a climbing rose and will grow right back up to those heights even after you prune it.

Butterfly's advice for waiting until spring is good for doing a major pruning and re-shaping but you can cut out dead wood anytime. Dead wood, crossed or rubbing canes and any damaged canes should be taken out sooner rather than later because all of those situations provide opportunities for diseases to get in. And use the glue. I don't use regular Elmer's because it washed off in the rain for me but they make a good carpenter's wood glue that dries hard and that's what I use. If a cane is dead you want to cut it as flush to the graft (knobby part at the ground) as you can. That will also encourage the rose throw up new, younger, healthier growth. If you do it now in zone 7 you should still have plenty of time before first frost for new growth to harden off.

When you do prune it back in the spring you can also take out 1/3 of the very oldest, woodiest canes. Besides encouraging new canes (called basals) it will also give better air flow to the interior of the bush. You want to open up the center so that air will flow through and around the plant so the leaves and canes will dry quickly giving fungal diseases less opportunity to take hold. When you prune, whether now or in the spring, you want to cut about a 1/4 inch (and on an angle so water will drain off the cut) above an outward facing leaf node or bud eye. That's where the new growth will come from and will grow in the direction that the eye is pointing. So you don't want it to grow inward towards the center of the plant. You also want to remove any canes that are smaller than a pencil in diameter. Those small canes will be weaker and will not support a bloom when it opens so the rose will droop or "nod".

Once you do the initial re-shape and clean up it won't be so hard to keep it in good order after that. Do fertilize it with any balanced fertilizer starting in the early spring when it comes out of dormancy and begins to grow and then once a month through the season, stopping about 6 to 8 weeks before your first frost date. Roses like about an inch of water a week so if it's dry (like it's been here) you'll need to water it. They prefer less frequent but deeper watering to a little dribble everyday.

I hope all that helps and isn't confusing or overwhelming. If you have any questions please ask. We love to talk about roses!

Thanks everyone. All great advice! I think I'll do as Seil suggests and prune out the dead wood now - there's not much of it so that'll be easy enough. I'm an experienced gardener, but I've never had roses, so I'm looking forward to the challenge.

If it's a climbing rose, how hard can I cut this baby back before I start killing branches? It's like 15 feet tall right now!

And will it bloom the same season after a hard pruning like that?

Oh, and if I cut it back pretty hard, will that make it a little bushier? Right now it looks like a tree and judging from the few rosehips present, I don't think it gets many flowers as it is.

Thanks so much for you help - I can always count on GW folks.

Can you post a picture? And one kind of close up of the base? That would help to give exact advice...

Also, if you really really don't like the flower, doesn't much matter--get rid of it.

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Thanks hoovb, I'd actually like to have more flowers. Maybe by pruning it back it will bloom a little more profusely in years to come. It looks so scraggly right now.

I just posted a bunch of pictures in a picassa album (I don't think I can do that here) - There are a couple of the base, some leaf shots and one of the rose hips (huge!). The pics are from my cell phone, so not great, but maybe helpful.

Here is a link that might be useful: Gigantic rose bush pictures

It's hard to tell from the pictures but I think it looks like a grafted rose. And it seems to have the classic "bare knees" of a climber. Those long empty, leafless stretches of cane before it starts to branch and leaf out. Clean out all the grass and plants growing around the base first so you can really see the graft. Cut out any dead wood flush to the graft first. Then see what you have to work with. From there, at this point in the season, you can do one of two things for the winter. I don't know how cold you get but I'm sure you get some wind and storms over your winter. If you don't want to cut it now tie it up some how so those canes don't whip around all winter in the wind and injure themselves. Or you can cut it back by about half now and then wait and see what kind of new growth you get next spring. Pruning it should not kill it. Pruning nearly always encourages new growth so don't be afraid to prune. The worst that will happen is you'll lose some blooms for a while.

I should also say that if you can gently stretch those canes as horizontal as possible without breaking them you will encourage what's called laterals and those will give you more blooms. Since most roses bloom on the ends of the canes if you encourage more side canes each of those will give you a bloom or spray of blooms. So maybe just cleaning out the dead wood and tying those canes to some kind of trellis would be a good way to go.

Hi Seil - thanks! That's great info and helps me so much. Only been in the house for 10 days and plan to turn that area into a garden. Judging from the few hips present, I don't think it bloomed much in the last year or so, so I think I'll clean her up and top 'er off a little now. I think I like your suggestion of training those long canes out horizontally. against the house.

Do you think some kind of support behind it (against the house), say, a trellis, would help support horizontal growth?

Depending on how flexible the canes are a trellis with a nice fan shape should work. Or maybe a lattice of some sort. The more horizontal you can get the canes the better it will bloom.

Hopefully once you get the dead wood out and cut it back some it will bush out a little more and bloom better for you. But cutting it may also lose you some bloom next spring. It's hard to say not knowing what rose it is. But in the long run cutting it may be better for the plant. It will also give you younger more supple canes that will be easier to train to a trellis.

As for the base, like I said earlier, a lot of climbers are bare like that at the bottom. It has something to do with having to send up so much food and energy so high up to the top that it forfeits growth at the bottom. So your best bet is to plant something short in front of it to hide the bare legs. Maybe next spring you could add a nice complementary rose at the base? Maybe a lighter pink? (Enabling going on here, lol!)

Is there anyway you can post that photo of it in bloom that you have?

If you are going to use a trellis or lattice, tie the canes to it rather than weaving them through it (altho I admit to temporarily doing my no-no if I see a cane on a walkabout when I don't have the velcro tape handy).

Tying with something easily removable gives you the option of changing the angle of horizantal as the cane lengthens. And it is easier to get to a too thin cane that would be best pruned out.

Be sure to leave some air space between the support and a wall.

As I have more plants than usable garden space, I try train plants as vertically as possible, even if I have to go horizontal to do it. That's why I love clematis and climbing roses more than the bushier types.

Keep in mind that it could be rootstock. If it is the common 'Dr. Huey' it will be a dark red flower, and it will only bloom once in springtime and not repeat. Some people are fine with that (I think Dr. Huey flowers are quite pretty myself); others want flowers throughout the growing season.

Here is a link that might be useful: dr huey @ helpmefind

Thanks for the link. Those are very pretty. I'd be happy with that!!

The guy who planted the rose moved here in 2007 - don't know if that matters or not. He planted quite a few interesting specimen plants, like the Jane Magnolia out front (also neglected now - he was doing poorly the last few years). Knowing what he gravitated towards, he would have wanted something unusual and possibly dramatic...

Can't wait to see what this big girl can do with just a little love!

I am making a guess that your giant rose bush is "Summer Wine", which is a wonderful rose! I have had it for many years and it arches up and over my front door. The shape, leaves and hips all look exactly like mine. What I would do is build a VERY strong arbor support for it and let its glorious flowers and hips that turn deep orange in fall hang down where you can see them.

Summer Wine puts on an awesome display of raspberry and gold large single flowers in early summer with some repeat blooming again in early fall. They are sweetly and mildly fragrant and the gentle but cheerful color is lovely.

If your rose is truly Summer Wine, cutting it back will let it renew itself but it will never be a small tame climber. I have had to cut mine back almost to the ground several times when winter winds took it over, and by June of the net year it is busy climbing high and handsome again!

I suggest that if this is not what you want, you let it grow for a year and get acquainted with it. You may find your ideas of "a rose garden" changing after making the acquaintance of this rose!

And yes, I would cut out the old dying stems now, and cut it way back in spring so it will bush out more, then stand back and watch it do its thing!

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Found these photos I had taken of Summer Wine, not the best but they will give you an idea.

Eden is right. You want to tie them not weave them in. You need to be able to loosen them to prune and if they're woven you can't do that. I buy twist tie by the roll for the garden and use that because I can cut however long a piece I need that way.

Lovely, Liza! And look at those shiny leaves!

Here's an update on the Gigantic Mystery Rose...last summer/fall I did as was suggested and pruned the bush. Most canes got a hard pruning while a few were pruned to about 4-5 feet tall. All put on new, vigorous growth with many new flower buds and two recently opened blossoms!While many guessed what variety it was, I still haven't found a match. So, here's some new pictures of this spring's leaves (tinted with maroon!)and the first open flower and flower buds! The flowers are about 2" across with four, wavy-edged petals in a blinding fire-engine red color! Thanks for all your help on this!!!

Here is a link that might be useful: Giant Rose

Definitely not Summer Wine - wrong color. I agree with the guess in the other thread on this - looks like Altissimo. If you look it up on "www.helpmefind", you will be able to see pictures of Altissimo and see what you think.

Jackie

P.S. Hilarious coincidence - I ordered Altissimo years ago, and planted it. It looked and grew like Altissimo, but the flowers were a completely different color - turned out eventually that they had sent me Summer Wine instead! I don't know if it is related to Altissimo, but it certainly looks like it until you see the flowers.

All winter I looked for this rose. An earlier commentor Altissimo is about as close as I have found! I think that might just be it!

Well, if it is a big mature Altissimo, you have a real treasure.

A lady up the coast from us in La Conchita, right across Hwy 101 from the surf, had a magnificent Altissimo which went right up the front of her 2-story home. It was a traffic stopper. (The dear lady has left us. I hope her rose is still there.)

Jeri

Wow, Jeri! That's inspiring! I now believe it is defintely a mature Altimisso. The previous owner planted it and he had a penchant for specialty varieties of everything he planted! I also have up to ten different kinds of peonies and four specialty irises (that I know of).

Hello @Billy Bob! I don't think your picture posted. If possible, could you repost your picture? Thank you.