We, here in Ontario, are forever reminded of how B.C. has no snow....you don't have to shovel rain. But, while snow is not thought of as something to admire---many people do wait for it and cant wait to get to the slopes...B.C. knows all about that what with Whistler raking in all the tourist dollars. Roses anywhere, everywhere, have common problems, from disease to winds, especially winter winds, that can dry out a plant in no time. So do put up a barrier to how winds might confront your rose bush. So too can winds dry out the soil--so make sure the plant goes into winter with lots of water--but not too much, roses don't like wet feet. Mound the plants up at least 12" with what you feel proper....soil, leaves, boughs...and don't remove the protection until all chance of frost has passed in the spring. Don't get antsy about a spell of warm weather in March which turns nasty again and have your plants succumb to the weather. Make sure the canes are tied together securely and to the trellis, post or fence you have them on. In the spring, separate the canes by how your hand and fingers are splayed out. That is how you want to have the canes grow and gives the best chance of sunlight to all parts of the plant. Don't do major pruning at this time --remove what is weak or damaged but otherwise, leave pruning for the spring. Open wounds on ends of canes can invite disease and freezes.

Thanks for your responses. Sorry it took me a while to follow up. In the original post I used the word "rootstock" perhaps too casually. What I meant is that there's a thick, woody log-looking vine along the ground, from which the canes are sprouting. Two of those canes are green, two are woody. All are sprouting out long vines that are green, and covered with leaves at the end. Bear in mind that they are long and leggy like this because before I cleared the way they had been both covered by brambles and climbing up into a tree. One more possibly useful piece of information is that this thick stock is planted next to an active climber that's very common in my area, one with countless little (2 1/2-inch diameter), light pink roses with many petals. Can't remember the name but I would recognize it. I'll post the a photo of the base/rootstock (?) here, and in two more posts a photo of the leaves and of the whole deal. (The site will allow me to post only one photo at a time.) Would appreciate your advice after seeing these images.

Hi Tadzio Welcome to GW Roses and we're glad to help with advice. There are two kinds of things that you can do to promote more blooming from a climbing rose. The most immediate help you can give is to gradually encourage that one cane to bend horizontally against whatever is supporting it, so that the cane will start to send out what are called "laterals". Those are the primary blooming canes of a climber. If you let a climber grow on its own, it will only bloom at the highest point and that's what you're seeing now. By bending the cane horizontally, all those laterals will be able to bloom at their highest points and it then gives the impact of more blooms all along the length. I wouldn't cut back the primary cane, since you want that base to start from to promote growth of the laterals. If the canes are flexible enough, it's possible to gradually encourage the canes to do a gentle zigzag pattern against the support so that the main cane can keep getting longer but still relatively contained against your support. Remember that roses won't attach themselves to the supports on their own, so you need to use something to attach it to the support, since you've discovered that on its own it wants to grow straight up. There are green velcro type ties sold at garden or hardware stores, or things like cut panty hose can work well. I wouldn't use hard supports like zip ties or clamps since they can damage the canes and are hard to readjust as the climber grows. I say gradually encourage in all these things, because the cane gets stiffer the older it gets and more reluctant to bend the way you want it. You might need to encourage it to bend to say 30 degrees, then 45 degrees after a few weeks, then work toward horizontal over time. Pulling the canes below horizontal isn't the best idea since the canes that point toward the ground are likely to die off up to the horizontal point - something about circulation as I understand it. You can keep bending the laterals horizontally toward the sides - spreading them out into a fan shape is a nice pattern for a climbing rose - and those laterals will put out laterals, etc. The second strategy can be to encourage the rose to grow more canes from the base, called basal canes. Climbers aren't as likely to get bushy with lots of canes from the base as other roses, but they can do this over time, and some are better than others. I get some results from spreading alfalfa hay around the base of the rose and working into the mulch, as alfalfa encourages basal breaks. Others have recommended mounding soil around the base of the rose to do the same, but I haven't tried that. It's more of a long-term strategy. One other point - if your climber is dark red with long thin canes and only blooms once in the year (May-June in most regions) you're likely to have a rootstock rose blooming rather than the original one planted. It's Dr. Huey, and most of us that are into roses dig him up because there are better climbers out there and he's pretty hard to dig out once he's there. It's your choice what to do about it if so, and Dr. Huey stays floppy and pretty prone to leaf diseases like blackspot regardless of what you'd do. FWIW, it usually helps us help you if you let us know your general region of the country, since rose advice varies by regions and coldness zones. Hope this helps Cynthia

I am not a bare root expert. I have planted many with success but I also lost some last summer that were spring planted. They were beautiful David Austin plants with lots of canes which I didn't trim or remove. Last fall I got an order in from Palatine and they sent directions for planting. I don't have their directions in front of me right now but they said to shorten the length of canes somewhat and to reduce the number of canes. I asked them about this and they confirmed that it was so top growth would be more in balance with the roots so the plant didn't have to support more growth than it comfortably could. I think I compromised and cut back to some degree but maybe not as much as recommended. So far my fall- planted Palatines are looking good. It looks like there are eight canes on your plant. I'd take out at least one or two smaller ones.