Elina--This is a classic PNW rose. It is vigorous, tall, produces lots of flowers, very disease resistant, rain resistant, loves our climate, but no fragrance. It has cream colored flowers that blend softly with just about any other flower. It is a great background rose!

You're welcome, Sophia. The placement looks about right, unless you can sink the umbrella a few inches lower so the crown of the plant is about even or slightly above the top so it rests on it instead of having to grow up in to it. You probably also want to invest in a couple of heavy metal pipes, driven well into the ground around the trunk of the umbrella then tied securely to it. Once the roses begin growing into weepers, they create an amazingly effective "sail" and will catch any breeze that passes them. Strengthening the upright stability as much as possible now will prevent you from having to stand them up and fight with them in the wind. Our SoCal winds are legendary and weepers are severe issues here. I learned this the hard way, and with an umbrella just like the ones you have. I thought one strong metal pipe, not a "stake", but a rigid metal water pipe, would suffice, but it finally required three, driven two feet into the ground, as close to the central trunk of the umbrella then all wired tightly together, to keep the structure upright in the winds. Yours may not be as severe, but you know you are going to eventually experience something similar. Securing them well now will prevent hours of totally wicked fighting and potential plant (and YOU) damage later. Plus, you have three of them to worry about. You need rigid, unbendable, rust resistant material such as galvanized water pipes, probably 8' long, driven in as far as you can to anchor the umbrellas. This is definitely a job you want to do ONCE. Good luck!

Do you live in Austin, TX? I know there is a local rose society there that, I'm sure, would be able to give you good advice about when to prune them back. Check on the American Rose Society's web site for info on how to contact them. Pruning them may not help though. What direction does the sun come from? Is it from behind that wall or fence? They may be growing that tall in an attempt to reach more sun. If they were mine I would, at the appropriate time, prune them back and move them to a spot that gets full, all day, sun. They should then bush out more lower down as you want them to. That is not a guarantee though. Depending on what roses they are there are roses that just have that tall growth habit naturally.

It's not Dr. Huey. Imagine budding with those thorns! Whether it is a climber or just something that wants to be tall doesn't matter. Either way, it will resent hard pruning and sulk. Not pruning it this year is a perfectly valid experiment. It looks big enough that you could also try pruning part of it, and letting the rest do its thing. Something to keep in mind, is that a lot of large roses put out a main June flush, then don't do a great deal for the rest of the year. It is in their genetics, and there isn't much you can do about it.