Penelope,

My advice is to remove just ONE cane, the oldest cane, cut down to the crown. Wait a whole year, and watch for new basal growth as is apparent to the far right of the bush in your photo.

That new basal cane in your photo is the life blood of your bush. You want more to come, but all in due time. Do not stress these venerable, magnificent specimens.

Using the bush in your photo as a model, if a new basal does not emerge in a years time after you remove the oldest one, then remove the next oldest cane at the bush's crown. No more cutting out canes at this point until you see new basal growths emerge.

When new basal canes emerge remove the next oldest canes every 2-3 years.

Your goal is to have as many young basal canes on a bush as possible. 4-6 basal canes a bush is ideal.

Follow the above restorative pattern with all your magnificent old rose bushes.

It may take several years (6-8 or more), for your bush(s) to all have brand new sets of basal canes.

Patience is the name of the game. Do nothing hastily.

BTW- OT, I have a brown and white pet pigeon, named Penelope (Penny...for short). She is a Pigmy Pouter, an English breed of fancy pigeon. Being a little sweetheart...gentle of temperament, she's easy to love. Penny laid an egg last evening. One of 7 other little Pigmy Pouters living in my small loft, Penny, along with one female Holle Cropper, a Dutch breed of pigeon, all 8 pigeons, are a great source of joy for an old man like me. Their antics are endearingly clownish.

Moses

Moses, thank you! Your advice was very helpful indeed. Now when we look at some of our old roses, that is obviously what was done years ago. Some already have four or five young basal canes - should we remove all the old branches on those particular roses next winter, or keep cutting one a year or every other year?

PS Love your pigeon tales, I'm sure they're greatly entertaining:)

Penelope,

I would proceed slowly, removing no more than the oldest, least productive cane at the crown every year or two. It all depends on how quickly and vigorously a particular bush responds. Two bushes of the same variety, even growing right next to each other, growing under the same environmental conditions, and given the same care, can respond quite differently. Each bush has its own program of pruning.

I know that the climate in Tasmania is highly favorable to rose culture. Your bushes, just by seeing their bottom portions in your photos, are definitely growing extremely well. They appear vigorous and thriving under your care.

BTW, what varieties are they?

Moses

Heavens, Moses, we have about 30 elderly rose bushes, about 11 of which are believed to have been planted soon after the house was built in 1952, and the others about 1970. We have identified Peace, Blue Moon and Queen Elizabeth II roses but we also have a deep pink, a crimson and a white - which we have very tentatively identified (given their vintage) as Maria Callas, Oklahoma and Iceberg or Virgo, and an unidentified pink/silver rose. We are of course just entering spring here now so when we have our best display (mostly recurrent, so right through till autumn), I'll post some photos. Altogether we now have about 60 roses.

Thank you for your interest and support, Moses. Not sure where in Philadelphia you are, but I've seen we here are in zones 8/9, and despite just entering spring, we still have snow on our Western Tier mountains..

Moses, I, too, want to thank you for the advice you have given in this thread. I inherited only four 50 year old roses. It will be easy to follow your advice for two of them and a major challenge for the other two.

It is the wrong time of year for me to prune as I live in the mountains of northern California and winter is coming. However, I think your recommendations are spot on.

My four roses are Tropicana, Queen Elizabeth, Tiffany and Manou Meilland (40 years old and has gone own root).