Hi Moray There is no mystery to pruning ANY rose. Prune to remove all DEAD, DAMAGED or DISEASED wood then cut back depending on your reqirements - hard if you require blooms for exhibiting, less hard for a good garden display. With weeping (rambler) standards also prune to shape the bush. DO NOT cut out all shoots that have flowered as they will flower again, simply cut back any side shoots as this will discourage weak flowerless growth from the ends of the side shoots. If your variety is not naturally weeping the some training (wiring / tying) may be useful. In my opinion the best weeping standards are made from the MOST vigourous varieties simply because it's better to remove wood if it grows too well than to hope for growth that may not come! Good luck with your Bonica

Lol, well I'm sorry, Joe, but I can't feel too sorry for you! I'm sitting here waiting for my first bloom! I usually get something open by Memorial Day and there is NOTHING open out there. At least you've seen some blooms already. The weather has been wonky here too. Nothing severe like in other parts but not normal either. One day it's 80 and the next 5 it's 50. the roses aren't growing much at all. Our averages should be low 70s in the daytime and mid 60s at night. We've had frost warnings twice in the last week. NOT FAIR! Our frost date is May 15th for Pete's sake. I put my tomatoes and peppers in just last week ( I did wait until after the frost date) and then promptly had to cover them all or lose them. Arrrrgh! I'd move it. It's having to compete too much with the Jasmine and that's probably slowing down it's progress. Bonica is a repeater so it should have bloomed by now. Usually only once bloomers take more than a couple of years to have their first bloom. If you'd like to have them grow together, which would be pretty, you need to grow the seedling up bigger first and then replant it with the Jasmine.

Hi Patty I have both Carefree Celebration and Bonica, and they're reliably clean and consistent bloomers for me in zone 5, with tendencies to survive even in zone 4 conditions. You can see from the whole bush shot below that CC has absolutely clean foliage - even in July blackspot pressure. The bloom isn't all that profuse in this shot, but it's consistent blooming even if pruned to the ground. I really like this rose. Jim is right that the blooms fade to an interesting parchment color, but I really like that variation too. If you don't, then just keep it deadheaded. Bonica is one of my top 20 roses that I would take with me to a limited space environment. It blooms under harsh conditions without complaint, blooms consistently throughout the year, and retains a majority of its canes in an average winter. Mine stays pretty blackspot free, and it's planted in part sun conditions. Here's a full bush shot from June 2014 after a particularly harsh winter when I had to prune off most of the canes. The blooms get a little scruffy looking if not deadheaded, as is true of virtually all light pink roses, but it only looks bad if you get behind in deadheading, as it's such a prolific bloomer. As MG reminds us, your blackspot pressures may differ particularly on the East Coast, but Chicago is pretty similar conditions to us here in NE (with somewhat more humidity). Bottom line for me is I recommend both of these. Cynthia

For years, I grew six Royal Bonica plants as a small hedge at my previous home. They were wonderful roses, taller than Bonica82, with a slightly darker pink color and a bit different in the bloom structure from Bonica82. The blooms were a little larger, too. These plants were grafted on Dr Huey. They were among my first roses, and I had absolutely no problems with them. Several years ago, I wanted to grow Royal Bonica again, and I had to order it from Hortico, so it was grafted on multiflora. There are some differences from the plants on Dr Huey, and I don't like them. This newer plant is is wider and shorter, and the blooms have a pink I'm not wild about. The blooms themselves just don't look as good in structure. It's hard to describe, but multiflora rootstock was not the best choice for this rose in my alkaline soil (other roses do fine with multiflora, some don't--it's a tossup). The differences aren't so great that I would dig up the rose, but I'm a little disappointed. Diane Older photo--wish I had a current one downloaded because it's really blooming right now--of Royal BonicaIt's much larger now and blooming more.