I'm nearly certain that's an (accursed) caragana. They are hardier than I can believe. Those are the yellow flowers in the picture, right? Some of them are more invasive than others, some have spines and some don't. I think the older plants were mostly planted to hold soil in place, which they're very good at. Do the seed pods make an audible "pop" when they are ripe, flinging seeds everywhere? Afterwards they would look like . . . this From Mystery plants or sometimes more spiralled. If it hasn't yet taken over the entire surrounding area, I suppose it might just be safe there. I'm currently trying to get rid of mine, and have read all sorts of discouraging things about how impossible it is to eradicate! It does have one winning feature (besides its hardiness). If I'm right, one can eat the flowers, and they are quite tasty - or at least the nectar in them is. Don't eat the seeds, though, they're very poisonous. Anyway, don't eat the flowers either, just in case I'm wrong!

What a coincidence! Just last night, I was reading Diane Ackerman's "Natural History of the Senses." It has a giddy couple of pages about roses, including the following: "In Damascus and Persia, people used to bury jars of unopened rosebuds in the garden, dig them up on special occasions to use in cooking - the flowers would open dramatically on the plates." Seemed unlikely to me, but now I wonder.... I'm only about forty pages into this book, but enjoying it. Plan to keep it on my shelves just for the rose trivia it has. Anita

You say it could be 30 or more years old? Then I'd say you have no need to worry about saving it. It's proved it's a survivor! I have no idea what rose it is but it looks like a modern climber of some sort. You can prune off dead wood any time of year. To tell if a cane is alive or not snip a couple inches off the tip of the cane and look at the inside. If it's a greenish white color and looks moist it's alive. If it's brown or tan snip off a little further down and check. Keep doing this down the cane until you see that clear, healthy center. Clean up those broken canes at the base. You want clean cuts that you can seal with glue or nail polish so pests and diseases can't get in. Make your cuts at about a 45 degree angle just above a leaf node if possible. Otherwise I would not prune it any further now. Roses store their energy to come out of winter in the canes. Early spring is the best time to do any kind of hard pruning on a rose. When it comes out of dormancy it will be raring to grow and will fill back out quickly. When it blooms next spring get clear close up pictures of the buds, half open blooms and fully open blooms as well as the leaves, canes, thorns and whole bush. Then we might be able to ID it for you.

I would remove a lot of the old gray wood next March--cut the canes at the ground or at the graft if one is visible. Hopefully it will respond by making some strong shoots from the ground. It looks like this rose is best grown as a climber with all the strong shoots fastened to the fence. Tie them rather than weaving through the lattice. Create a fan pattern by leading the first canes low and almost horizontal, the next in a low arc above the first, etc. Having lots of cane nearly horizontal (or 45 degrees) will greatly increase the amount of bloom. Most roses have canes that are best trained after they have grown well out and become fibrous. Then they will bend without breaking. After it begins to get crowded again, remove a fraction of the oldest canes each year at the base, Do the main pruning in June after blooming to maximize the amount of bloom. You can also remove the stronger laterals (strong secondary shoots off the main canes) unless you need them to fill in. Cut the shorter laterals back to 2-3 leaves after blooming. The spots visible in pics 6 and 7 are blackspot disease, but the plant must be somewhat resistant or it would be defoliated by now. The foliage appears to be of modern type. The hooked thorns suggest the parentage includes climbing species. You can show us blooms and buds next May.