Yeah, I don't really bother with standards because they do require extra pruning, particularly after the first flush of flowers to head back those growing laterals. Because standard roses will bloom on new wood, you can be fairly harsh with the pruning and shaping, just do it between flushes. Basically, like all pruning, you are doing it for shape and size control (which is why little and often is better than stimulating the rose into overdrive with a hard prune), control of disease and passage of air (take out tiny twigs, inward growing canes to keep the centre open). Usually, the rose trunk should be clear so you may have to pinch out developing buds along the trunk but as a rule, it is the same as pruning hybrid teas but just do an extra summer cut to shape - and with some vigorous weeping types, you might need to trim throughout the year, just to maintain a compact shape. Winter pruning is when you need to consider the whole bush since this is the time we can take off extra wood without the rose immediately breaking into new growth-you can really cut the head of the bush tight while keeping an open centre. A bit like pruning for fruiting spurs on apples, I do the pruning in dead of winter rather than spring, when I am attempting to keep a plant a bit more compact and neat. Much also depends on your climate (which I have moved the page on and cannot recall) so someone near you may well chime in with a more considered and nuanced reply.

Thank you for the replies. Poet's jasmine is Jasminum officinale, and is a vigorous plant. That's a good point about reducing air circulation. I think what I will do is plant the jasmine and see how it does in my situation. That way I can get a feel for it. What a wonderful picture of the banksia! And the doubles are fragrant? Hmm. The idea to run a cylinder around the tree I like, spikes in the tree were worrying me a bit, even though I think it's big enough to handle some injury, there's always a risk. Douglas firs tend to have kind of a starfish pattern to their roots, I'm pretty sure that I'll be able to dig between the roots fairly far out and have reasonable moisture. I've notice that our ground tends to stay moister in the summer under the trees than way outside them; perhaps because I have sandy soil? I don't know. I was actually more worried that the water for the rose would be too much for the tree's roots! I'll have to go dig some holes to make sure there's room for the roses; but I don't anticipate a problem, I planted some Japanese Maple seedlings on the other (slightly shadier north) side of it, and the roots didn't interfere there. I'll take a look at Treasure Trove, what a wonderful name; and the Gardenia thread makes it sound promising too. Plus, the amusement value of telling unsuspecting people that I have a Gardenia growing into a tree is immense!

Thanks for the diagram! I will save it to my images

You root a big long cane of rootstock then graft a rose bud on. Rooting a big cane is not easy especially if you do softwood rooting in Spring or Summer. You get better chance by hardwood rooting in Autumn. The first thing is to find a big long rootstock cane of Dr Huey or Multiflora ... to start with. If it's autumn rooting over Winter, just stick it down and forget about it. Next year they will grow. If you do Spring rooting of softwood young canes, you need to be very careful. here is how I do it at home and get near 100% sucess rate for Dr Huey and Multiflora - Take a 2ltr plastic milk bottle, punch holes at the bottom and pour in a mix of sand and peat. Soak it in water the first time. - Cut long canes, keep about 10 sets of leaves up the top, shear the bottom two nodes and apply rooting hormone - Insert about 10 canes in each bottle! No worry! use ties to hold them in a bunch, fan the top out to help the leaves to get light. - Lay the canes low about 1 foot off the ground and mist the top leaves or spray them by automatic timer every 2-3 hours for 4 weeks Ok, they would have lost all leaves after 4 weeks. Stand the canes up right in part shade. Pot them out when you see a lot of roots through the clear plastic of the milk bottle. Then you must master the art of budding or ship budding or grafting to get the rose buds on. I would suggest chip budding as it can be done most times of the year. -Dmaivn