How you deadhead clusters depends on the size of your rose and whether you want it larger or restricted in size. If the plant is still young and establishing itself, then I grab the cluster in one hand and cut through the upper part of the cluster with the other. This at least removes spent bloom and prevents the formation of hips. The rose then decides where it will produce new growth. Most cluster-flowered roses will produce new flowering wood from both below and within the inflorescence. Next pruning season, I can select where to prune. You wouldn't want to do this for exhibition roses, obviously, but for garden roses, it works fine with the vast majority of cultivars. There are the odd growers here and there that go haywire no matter how you deadhead them. If your rose is over-sized, then use deadheading as an opportunity to reduce its size by pruning to the next budeye below the cluster.

Yes, miniatures will set hips. I use them when I make crosses all the time. Just take off the petals and leave the hip on the plant and let it ripen a good 90 to 102 days and you'll have seeds inside that you can plant if you like.

Every time I walk thru my rose garden, I use my fingers to snap off any spent blooms right underneath the base of the bloom. Then every 3-4 weeks, I go thru the roses with a pruner cleaning out what you call the spikes & doing any general reshaping of the bush. Cutting back to the 5 leaflet leaf is something you want to do if you are a rose exhibitor or growing roses for cut flowers, but if you are like most rose growers, you just want a bunch of roses on your bush & once in a while to cut some for the house thus cutting back to the 5 leaflet is not as important.

To me, this seems like an excellent candidate for growing in a pot or tub and hauling into a cold (non-freezing) protected place for winter, such as a cellar or garage. It is the only China rose I have seen that is described as very, very fragrant. About color, when I was a young child red flowers were everybody's favorite and were seen everywhere, red bedding annual sage, (magenta) red petunias, red pelargoniums, and the red climber "Blaze". I think people got tired of too much red. But a few years ago, when my husband and I visited Strasbourg, France, everywhere you looked there were tumbling masses of red flowers, I thought it was fabulous and you couldn't have too much or too many gradations of red. https://www.helpmefind.com/rose/l.php?l=2.71576&tab=1 https://www.helpmefind.com/rose/l.php?l=21.256952