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.

Thanks everyone. :o) Barb, I had the same thought. There's more to tackle on the property but that was the biggest and worst of it. It's good to have it at this stage. And actually, my boyfriend was outside the other day (between mulch batches). A neighbor stopped on her way while strollering with her grandchild just to compliment us on all our hard work. Cheers, Kate. LOL I have to wait to plant anything. The bed has to bake a while. there's so much woody debris in the soil from the roots, stems and all the nonsense that came out. We'll see what it's like after the rains of the summer. Guaranteed though that the azalea will NEVER get like it was in that first pic. I'm thinking some smaller ornamental grasses or something around the border. I have the summer to do some research though. Linda, thanks so much. :o) I look out from the porch and it's like a full body sigh of relief seeing it at this point. I drive up the street coming home and I feel like giggling not to have to contend with that vine et al anymore. There's still 2-3 cubic yards of mulch that needs to be spread but it looks 1800 times better at this point that I just had to share! :o)

Darkcyde, the light levels at this time are very poor where plants are concerned. In winter, they go into dormancy and do not need the water, nor the light so much. As light levels begin now to increase, you can expect your sapling to put on new growth....as little as it is. There's nothing wrong in starting an outside plant indoors as long as you give it some sort of natural habitat it would otherwise enjoy outside. Don't let the plant dry out, but when you water, water to drainage and dump the excess after a reasonable period of time. Don't let the water be drawn back up. Watering with distilled water. Was that info given you by someone who has views on regular community treated water. The 'treated' I take is your town's water is fluoridated. So what, most communities think its good for the kid's teeth. As far as fluoride damaging a small tree, I doubt it has had the time to have an effect and besides, just leaving the water to sit overnight and gain room temperature, is sufficient. Salts build-up in soil is a long-term thing, it doesn't happen overnight. Don't worry about it. Brown tips on plants can be usually traced to one or two possible causes: light...and or overwatering. You would know whether you are giving the plant too much water. Remember, it can only use so much water through winter...it should be actively growing to use such water. Light. Light at this time is very low....not until well into February is the intensity of light sufficient to push growth. I suspect what growth you have now is being pushed by your feeding it. Plants don't need feeding in winter, albeit very minimally, because they are not growing. Sunlight influences growth. Since light levels are so low, growth is not wished. So, no more feeding the plant until spring and new growth is in evidence. Water only when the plant needs it...don't put it on any schedule. Let the plant dry down between waterings and when you water, water always to drainage and dump the excess. The new growth in spring will change those brown tips to green ones. Whether you continue to buy distilled water is up to you. I don't believe its needed. When plants have a definite problem due to the water issue, then you can consider buying the more expensive stuff. Until the problem is one of water type, I would use the straight stuff and let it get to room temperature overnight.

Pirula...I can almost bet that the answer to your question is NO LOL And the same for 80's horrific bathrooms with tile, lots of grout, colored sinks and toilets as well as oak cabs. Bleh. The addition of the bathrooms for all of the bedrooms was actually done really well. None are shared and each has at least a shower if not a bath and shower. I could see if it ever did become a B&B again that keeping the one in the wine room would make sense (plus the whole issue of the trip through the kids room to get to the other one now if ya'll have tasted too much wine). But the other on the top floor...it's actually an extra (3 bedrooms on the floor and four full baths). I actually dreamed of a stackable last night after hauling laundry down to the basement yesterday LOL The master suite remodel will probably ruin that half of the 2nd floor for B&B use unless they charge a chit load for the suite LOL But really we don't expect to move and we want a well apointed suite. It's two bedrooms with two baths now and a huge 8x8 foot space between that's empty (probably a skelaton or two....) It used to be one big room with a dressing room and bathroom (I wish we had all of the fixtures...it was written up in the paper at the time). We're going to put it all back as best as we can figure out. Any future B&B user can just figure it out later LOL Funky....I'll mail you a key...Send DH over when he gets grumpy. We'll let him spend the day showering in all remaining bathrooms til he's had his fill :oP