"Last summer I noticed that one of my roses know as "Perfume Delight" was shooting up large leafy canes but was not producing and blooms. Later in the summer that same rose did produce two blooms which were the big characteristic hot pink. I noticed that the canes with no blooms leaves ( smaller, darker green with reddish trim around leafs) looked different than the leaves on the shoot that produced the blooms ( bigger bright green leaves). This year I am noticing the same thing..." You are witnessing the emergence of the rootstock variety that your roses are budded onto. It is almost certainly the dreaded 'Dr. Huey'. I suggest you clear the soil away from the crown of the plant (gently!) and identify where these shoots are coming from and clip them off at the very point where they come off the main stem. If you do this properly, you may stop it from dominating your plants, but the odds are that once it has happened one time, it will happen again. "Dr. Phooey" (as it is sometimes referred to) is a dreadful plant to graft onto since it is almost guaranteed to overrun the scion variety at some point in the life of the plant. There are millions and millions of plants of it across the country to attest to this behavior.

Unless you want to win HT Queen, hybrid teas aren't the best roses for your area. It takes skill, luck, and a mindset that enjoys replacing roses early and often. There are reasons the northeast considers HTs to be zone 7 plants. A big one being that their performance much into zone 6 isn't very good. These are not hybrid teas in a public garden near the Hudson River in zone 6a. They were planted last spring, and the picture was taken by somebody else a couple of weeks ago. These not hybrid teas were not winter protected. They also have not been watered, and the only fertilizer is some granular stuff sprinkled around. Next year, I am probably going to have to teach people to prune because we will be into that local unknown, pruning for size. And Diane, if you are reading this, yes, those are the Fairy Tales. The red roses in the middle are polyanthas that have been around for about 15 years, but the others are that Fairy Tale order.

One of the older conventions of rose care is to cut way back on a one-cane wonder to force more new canes. It doesn't work. It's kinda like beating a sick child to make it stronger, IMHO. If you really want the rose to get stronger, what I do is dig it up and pot it in good potting soil and in a pot that is not too big for the root system (otherwise they're susceptible to root rot if the pot is too big). Then I baby it along and see if I can get it to revitalize. If it's only got one cane, it's because it's weak and not growing well. Pruning off what little top growth it has will only weaken it more. Vigorous plants respond to heavy pruning by growing more, but weak plants die. I'd wait til normal spring pruning time to prune back Mr. L. I find that fall pruning in my climate, at least, results in increased cane canker from exposing cut wood to wet winter weather. Yes wind whipping can be a problem but it's better to stake and tie in most cases. You can indeed prune into old gray wood, so long as you see a bud. I'd only do a third or half the canes that way at one pruning and wait for the next year to do the others. I have revitalized old improperly pruned roses that way, but that was in mild California with long growing seasons and gentle winters. I haven't tried it here.

If it was planted 5 to 10 years ago Honey Perfume would be too new. Look at Just Joey, it could be that.