Hi Mary! How great! When you're finished, want to come prune mine, too? LOL!

How to prune GH all depends upon what you want her to do and be. If you'd like for her to "climb", then select the canes you want to form her frame work, tie them in where you want them, then prune what's left as you would laterals on a climber.

If you want her to build into a huge mound, lightly prune her to open her up to light and air. If you want to TRY to keep her more controlled, you can pruner her harder, but she is one exuberant lady! The larger you'll permit her to be, the healthier, happier and more of an explosion of color she'll be for you. It's your call and all depends upon your room and vision for her. The only thing I've discovered she hates is being "exhibition pruned", whacked back to the nubs as mow/blow/goers would modern roses in their clients' gardens. Then, if it's an issue where you are, she'll give you black spot to express her indignation. It makes sense. The more foliage, the more food produced and the healthier her immune system will be, yielding a stronger resistance to fungal attacks. Kim

I couldn't have said it better.

You could prune her like a very very big Grandiflora. We tend to do nothing at all to ours. And yes, she can make a lovely, exuberant low climber.

Jeri

Thanks! Merry Christmas to you and Clay, too! Kim

Good friends, good critters, good roses -- we have to be happy. :-)

Jeri

I just pruned mine, taking it from about 8 feet to about 5 or 6 feet. It took me about 2 hours. Here it the result.

Rosefolly

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:219868}}

She should be a marvelous riot of pink in very short order. You should post photos of her when she explodes, please? Thanks! Kim

Perfect!

Jeri

My question is: when do you remove a cane on this type of rose to the ground and hope new basal breaks will rejuvenate the plant? I put put ours in in March of '05 and some of the canes were getting old and scraggly. I have removed one or two to the ground, but what has replaced them is less vigorous. Is this just a rose that's going to peak at 3-5 years old, and then decline? Thanks for advice.

Not in my experience. With heat, some food and water, GH has always been vigorous to the extreme for me. I'd check drainage, water, food, etc. to make sure all is well with the basics. I've never had to remove full canes from her, so something sounds a bit off to me. Kim

I take old canes off this rose at the base only when they stop being productive, one or two a year on average. And I look at the new canes and keep only the most vigorous.

One thing I do which not everyone is willing to do (because of the thorns) is this, unless a rose is very diseased, I chop up all the smaller canes, twigs and leaves, and leave them at the base of the rose as a nice, thick winter mulch. You can see it in the picture. I spray with fixed copper once a year after pruning and I coat the plant and the ground to get any over-wintering disease at that time. Only the heavy old wood is removed to the community recycling bin. That way most of the nutrients in the rose slowly recycle back into the soil to be taken back up into the plant. I do fertilize, but only once a year, just to keep the full complement of nutrients in the soil. I add compost or a wood chip mulch, or both, when the ground shows bare spots. My plan is to grow my garden more like a forest and less like a farm as far as inputs of nutrients go. I think it is a wise way to garden, though I have a sentimental reason as well.

I'm trying to remember when I planted Grandmother's Hat. I think it was around 2003, which would make it eight years old. It does not show any signs of decline. On the other hand, your Brother Cadfael is much more vigorous than mine is. I think I may have managed that one poorly, or perhaps it just doesn't like its location. It certainly lacks the robust good health of GH in my garden.

Rosefolly

Like Kim, I've never had to remove canes from any of our Grandmother's Hats or Tina Maries. (I guess, all told, we've got about 12 of them.) The only rose of that family that has not been abundantly vigorous was a virused Larry Daniels (which is why we no longer grow L.D.)

But, FWIW, we did used to prune our original GH sort of like a really, really big Grandiflora. As a result, that one plant remains more ball-shape than the others, tho it is now much, much taller. We planted that first one probably close to 20 years ago, and it's still corking along just fine.

Jeri

I wonder what differences being budded vs. own root might make with this question? I had a budded one from "he who shall remain nameless" for many years and it was quite satisfied to remain an enormous shrub in Newhall. The own rooters seem more inclined to climb, if given support. The one against the fence in the side yard is expressing that preference now, as well as putting out a sucker, which I've never seen it do before. But, the soil there is very "granular" and light, and that might encourage it. Kim

Ok thanks, your input helps me a lot.

The sickly, virused L.D. we gave up on came from "He Who Shall Be Nameless." Others came from -- other sources. That one was the ONLY one that's not flourished.

Jeri

Might you still have the piece of the one I gave you from the old Newhall garden? That was rooted directly from the plant in The Study Plot, from which all the others we distributed were made. I rooted that thing back about 1984/85 and it grew there until it went home with you. Kim

No. I didn't get that from you.
I wish I had. Rather, I got a piece of the Portland From Glendora, from the Study Plot.

My first GH -- from which most of ours were propagated -- came from Bob Edberg, as 'Mrs. R.G. Sharman-Crawford', long before it was in commerce as G.H.

It was an own-root plant, and when we had to move it a couple of years later, it split into four parts.

This is the clone with the subtly-striped and stippled blooms, which you've seen. The plants down at the bottom of the hill, in the lowest beds, and under the avocado tree, which you sent cuttings from, to Hans. It's also in a few other locations.

Then, I have the slightly-darker "NorthSide Pink," from Mare Island, and the hedge-row around the side of the house which plants came from Sequoia.

The two Tina Marie's came from Vintage.

Jeri

OK, thanks. I wish I'd been able to send that one home with you. It's the only GH I'd encountered which didn't demonstrate virus symptoms. Kim