You made a mistake by cutting them back last fall. In your zone you should not prune your roses in the fall. Wait until spring. The roses store nutrients in the canes and you cut that supply off when you pruned them. That being said, last year was a particularly bad winter and you probably would have lost most of the cane anyway. Nothing you can do about that. We all started out with shorter than normal roses this spring. They'll need time to recuperate and rebuild their structures. Knowing what roses you have will also help us to determine how large and bushy you can expect them to get. Roses can take from 3 to 5 years to fully mature so be patient. As for the puckered leaves we really would need to see a photo of them to be able to diagnose what's going on. Why are you using the Bioneem oil? Do you have a bug infestation? If not then you don't need it. If you do not have a specific insect that you have correctly identified and are using the correct product for that bug, you could be killing off beneficial insects instead. That could set you up for an even worse problem later on. Only use insecticide when you have a bug, know exactly what bug it is and determine the correct insecticide to use for that bug. Not all insecticides work on all bugs. For now I would keep them well watered and fertilize them following the instructions on the fertilizer carefully and be patient.

I would remove a lot of the old gray wood next March--cut the canes at the ground or at the graft if one is visible. Hopefully it will respond by making some strong shoots from the ground. It looks like this rose is best grown as a climber with all the strong shoots fastened to the fence. Tie them rather than weaving through the lattice. Create a fan pattern by leading the first canes low and almost horizontal, the next in a low arc above the first, etc. Having lots of cane nearly horizontal (or 45 degrees) will greatly increase the amount of bloom. Most roses have canes that are best trained after they have grown well out and become fibrous. Then they will bend without breaking. After it begins to get crowded again, remove a fraction of the oldest canes each year at the base, Do the main pruning in June after blooming to maximize the amount of bloom. You can also remove the stronger laterals (strong secondary shoots off the main canes) unless you need them to fill in. Cut the shorter laterals back to 2-3 leaves after blooming. The spots visible in pics 6 and 7 are blackspot disease, but the plant must be somewhat resistant or it would be defoliated by now. The foliage appears to be of modern type. The hooked thorns suggest the parentage includes climbing species. You can show us blooms and buds next May.

John, You may very well be right that the crosses you mention are not actually "wide" crosses. The information I listed came from internet searches and I missed any information about the Acidanthera being reclassified as a Gladiolus. There were other crosses listed that I'd consider "wide" crosses. As for Pardancanda this is information I found by David Joyce, Associate Professor, Clark University: "A note on Pardanthopsis - Rodionenko classified the Vesper Iris, Iris dichotoma, as the sole member of the subgenus Pardanthopsis. In 1967 Samuel Norris crossed it with the Blackberry Lily, Belamcanda chinensis, and began a strain of fertile intergenus hybrids sometimes called Candy Lilies. (The Vesper Iris and the Blackberry Lily had long ago been recognized as similar plants, and in the nineteenth century were even put together in the genus Pardanthus by some authorities.) In 1972 Lenz elevated Pardanthopsis to the level of genus and placed the Vesper Iris in it as P. dichotoma. He put the Candy Lilies in the hybrid genus Pardacanda and named them X Pardacanda norrisii in honor of Norris. This is essentially Rodionenko's classification with Pardanthopsis elevated to a genus. Genus Pardanthopsis (P. dichotoma, Vesper Iris) Genus Belamcanda (Blackberry Lilies) Hybrid genus Pardacanda (Pardanthopsis X Belamcanda; P. norrisii, Candy Lilies)" As to how wide a cross this is, I don't know. Would love to hear more from others on the subject. Great topic. Bob

Backyardmomma, I am still here. : ) I am not a rose expert like Sammy, and I hope she and others who grow lots of roses see your thread and respond. I have had the fungal infection that causes black spot on the foliage of rose leaves but haven't personally seen it on canes, although I suppose since it can attack the foliage, and we all know that it does, then it likely could attack the canes too. However, there are some rose cankers that attack the stems and they can vary in color from shades of brown to purplish to black. I'm not sure which of the two you have, or if it is something else entirely. With last year being so extraordinarily wet, humid and cloudy, I am not surprised the roses have issues. I have linked the OSU Fact Sheet on roses for you and it describes the various diseases, including canker, and what to do for them. Fungicides are already on the store shelves and I'd buy one that lists roses as one of the plants it is approved to treat, and I'd follow the directions on the label. If the fungicides are not effective at cooler temperatures, they'll so state that on the label and tell you to wait until the temperatures reach a specific level. Because diseases like black spot and canker linger on plant litter, be sure to rake up and dispose of all of last year's leaves and this year's prunings. I wouldn't compost them because I'm not sure if the compost pile will heat up enough to kill them. I'd bag them and get rid of them. When you prune, be sure to disinfect the pruners in a water/bleach solution after each plant so you don't spread the disease from plant to plant. It probably would be a good idea to be very pro-active and try to get ahead of the diseases this year by treating all your roses regularly with a fungicide as the product label advises. With a very wet year in 2009, and with 2010 starting out with above-average precipitation, it is likely that there will continue to be lots of fungal issues on all sorts of plants this spring and not just on your roses. Good luck and I hope the roses make a nice recovery. Dawn Here is a link that might be useful: OSU Factsheet on Growing Roses