In your zone the purpose of planting the graft below the ground is winter protection. If you plant the graft 4 to 6 inches under the soil if the rose dies back in winter all the way to the soil you will not lose the graft and have the root stock take over. Otherwise you will need to protect the graft for winter or take the chance of losing your rose. If the rose is planted well, in a good spot with good soil and plenty of sun, and well cared for with water and fertilizer it should be fine. It's very hard to determine exactly when a rose will bloom or how long it will take a rose to bloom. It depends on each variety. For exhibition purposes sometimes we'll keep records of how long a particular variety takes to cycle and prune accordingly before a show. It's usually somewhere between 6 & 8 weeks before a show. Then we just hope that the roses will bloom at just the right time. Sometimes it works but not always. There are no guarantees.

You raise an interesting question. Years ago I knew a man who ALWAYS planted pairs in every spot...two trees, two daylilies, whatever. His reasoning was that they could coexist until one showed clear superiority, and then if he needed to he would take out the weaker one. Worked for him, but it made me scratch my head. In really good soil I sometimes plant more than one...like three shrub roses in a hole the size of a bathtub, to form a large mass fairly quickly. Today at the base of an arbor I am planting a Parade and a Thomas Affleck in the same large hole, hoping that the Affleck will cover the Parade's exposed legs. (The flowers are almost exactly the same color.) On the other side I am planting a Crepuscule and a daylily of the same light yellow. That's about as wild and crazy I as I ever get in the garden. (It's okay to laugh.) Laura

Fionna, without knowing the variety names, a person wouldn't know what to send to you. You now have Dr. Huey, which is the rootstock. Pruning didn't cause the reversion, something (usually weather related) killed off the grafted variety and allowed Dr. Huey to "sucker" and take over. You wouldn't want to graft or bud your new cuttings onto these plants of Dr. Huey. You would want to take a cutting of Dr. Huey and bud your new rose to it. Or, you could just root your cuttings and grow the plants as own-root roses. Here is a link that might be useful: Propagating Roses article by Dr. Malcolm Manners

I know! Which is why I bought 3 bushes. One of them, in my perennial bed gets bs late in the season but the other two get bs to the point that I am considering removing them. I don't have any trouble with my Kiss Me or Sunrise Sunset, Kashmir, Como Park or my Weeks rose Drop Dead Red. If you want a good hybrid tea style red rose Drop Dead red and Kashmir have been good in my bs magnet garden in humid hot SW Ohio at the height of summer. i have had good luck so far with all my Kordes roses and with Belinda's Dream ( touch wood).