There is a good possibility that your red climber is an old Dr. Huey and there's nothing wrong with that. He can put on a spectacular display! If that's what it is (a photo would help ID it) then you can probably prune him pretty low without much worry because he's a VERY vigorous grower! That's why he gets used as a root stock. But, like a lot of climbers, those bare bottom limbs are fairly common and will probably return. A lot of climbers do that because it takes a great deal of energy to send food up to the tips to leaf out and bloom. So to save some energy they stop producing leaves, laterals and blooms at the bottom. The way you train it makes a difference too. By sending it up that arbor you've created a long vertical stretch that doesn't produce lateral growth so it doesn't bloom. The wider, more horizontal, you can spread the limbs the more laterals, so the more blooms, you will get. That's the point of trellises, to spread the canes out sideways to create those laterals. It's also what "pegging" does. By bending the canes around in a circular manner you create horizontal areas that will produce lateral limbs and blooms. That's what's happening on your arbor. The long straight stretch up to the top doesn't produce the limbs for blooms but when it gets up to the top it lies horizontally across the arbor and grows side canes that bloom. My best suggestion would be to leave it alone and plant something shorter at the bottom to cover the bare legs.

I only have 8 roses, although 4 of them are climbers. I'm probably going all out on them this winter since I only have 8 and I bought them all potted this spring. Climbers: Red Eden White Eden New Dawn Zephirine Drouhin Shrubs: Graham Thomas Pat Austin William Shakespeare 2000 Belinda's Dream I have a relatively large oak tree in front of my house, so I am going to use oak leaves. I'm going to buy some chicken wire or the equivalent of it, then prep with winter fertilizer, dump a bag of top soil over the base of the rose, then place the chicken wire around the rose as a cylinder than fill it with the oak leaves. For the climbers, most people don't do anything. However, I am going to protect them as well as I am in a pretty stingy environement still and Red and White Eden havn't been widely tested in my area. This depends on how large the roses get this year, but I am going to dump a bag of top soil over the base, then chicken wire and put oak leaves around the base as well for the first couple feet...or however wide of a roll of chicen wire I buy. The remainder of the canes, I will wrap in burlap together. I don't expect my climbers to be any taller than 5ft this year though, so it's not very labor intensive. If they were mature huge climber like New Dawn, I would probably just dump a bag of soil over the base and leave it as it is as it would be a mature plant.

IÂm not a rose connoisseur, but I just want to say that I agree with Steve about snow possibly breaking the canes. I only have five teas, and last year I was so grateful that I had gotten them cut down before the blizzard we had just before ChristmasÂand then all the subsequent snows. I always cut the teas down to about 18" in fall, and then cut them a bit shorter and trim out dead wood in spring, but this spring when the snow FINALLY melted off enough to see them again, several of the canes on my favorite oneÂMellow YellowÂhad broken down to the ground in spite of having been cut fairly short last fall. Another advantage IÂve found to cutting them down in fall is that if we get early warm weather and I donÂt get around to cleaning them up promptly, at least theyÂre in their basic size and shape for the new year, and IÂm not cutting a lot of new growth off when I finally get to them. If I had shrubs or rugosas or something similar, IÂm not sure what IÂd do with them. Skybird

Seil, I always see your posts on the rose forums, I rarely post, but I've been lurking around for years. Posted a bit last year. But, I am really surprised that you haven't been able to cross, you seem like a rose genius! :) I put tin foil over them after I take the pollen, then the next day, I add the father pollen, and put the tin foil back over until I'm ready to harvest. My setup is nothing special. I use a peat/perlite mix to start the seeds after they have stratified in the fridge for 3-4 months in either a wet paper towel, or the peat/perlite mixture. I sometimes mist with a spray bottle, water with a bit of super-thrive. Here is my setup, it is just a grow light with a garbage bag over it, and a camera set up to take a picture ever 4 minutes for the time lapse. :)