Dames de Chenonceau my absolute favorite rose. I have 2. One is in a huge pot and its about 3.75 feet tall and wide. It shrugs off disease and always has the largest most sumptuous blooms that last well in the vase as well as on the bush. I also have one in the ground that has stayed about the same size except for a few long canes that shot out to about 10 feet tall and I draped them over an arbor that was close by. These giant canes bloomed more often than the rest of the plant. Had I wanted to keep it compact I would have just pruned the down, but I love this rose so much I let it grow and will continue to let it grow as much as it wants. I would like to grow more Delbards as most of the ones I have tried have been great. Nahema for instance is another wonderful rose and has also done very well for me. I am hoping the nematodes don't ever get to either of these roses because they are both in the ground, but I keep them growing in lots of organic matter so hopefully they will stay far away.

I've grown all three you mention and they're all BS resistant, more than most roses. Like Predfern I really love Nahema, and it grows quickly and blooms very nicely off and on all season. Madame Bovary is a very nice climber also - in its second year, it was blooming all along the fence in my "secret garden" photo. Both have very double blooms and are basically trouble free and hardy. Souv. de Louis Amade was one of the least exciting Delbards I grow - it was supposed to be lilac purple but was just a washed out white. When it didn't overwinter after 2-3 years, I didn't bother replacing it - and I LOVE Delbard as a breeder, so that was a tough admission. Dames des Chenonceau is still relatively young in my yard, but has overwintered well and is BS resistant. Delbard, like Kordes, is a good rose breeder for cold zones with BS pressure, since they're usually both hardy and disease resistant. Hope this helps! Cynthia

I think you would be safe to take enough off them to make them manageable, as if you were cutting long stem roses. Nahema makes a wonderful long stem cut rose because it does have those very, very long laterals and such beautiful fragrance. When it blooms next, you could simply cut the long stems for indoors. Then you would not have to really prune it until winter. :-) We prune in winter here in CA, isn’t that the right time in OZ too? I would think spring pruning would be too late. Pruning after the spring flush is only for once bloomers from what I understand. Your Nahema will bloom a lot more once you start cutting the blooms for indoors. I don’t follow the rule for not pruning climbers their first year, especially when they grow so much they really need to be pruned. I defoliated and pruned mine their first winter and they’re already back over 12 feet again just a few months later.

Glad to help! If you're happy with how the rose looks there's not usually a wrong way to do such things. In my yard, I probably am not as enthusiastic about cutting my laterals way back unless they're actively annoying me, since I want to keep the laterals as the blooming canes when convenient. I just bend those laterals sideways like I bend the main cane sideways, and then the laterals put out more laterals that put out more laterals...and the climber starts building that fan shape. You don't have to do that, but it helps increase the blooming over time. Those skinny lateral canes will fatten up if you leave them, rather than making that cane start over to produce new blooming canes. Not wrong to remove them if they bug you, but there's a tradeoff in blooming profusion and frequency. I also don't cut back canes where the leaves are unsightly since you want maximum canes to support more leaf and bloom development. If you can't stand the sight of the leaves it's OK to remove them, but the plant still benefits from the leaves even if there are holes. There's some sort of formula for maybe 35 leaves to support one bloom to keep in mind to increase blooming. Not set in stone of course, but I like to leave as many healthy canes and tolerable leaves as possible when pruning. Sounds like you did a great job getting things tidied up. Having a garden that brings you joy is part of the point of the activity and it sounds like you were getting tired in a good cause. Cynthia