I grow them as shrub roses, and they are of my best roses. The bloom not matter what, and even though autumn can be cold and wet, Westerland still manage to unfold it's buds. I can almost guarantee it will reach 7 feet up a trellis. I don't know how much further than that. Even with a bit of spring pruning it grows tall. They will probably not need trellis the first year, they will most likely be like 2 feet hight later in the season, and hold their own canes pretty well up to about 3 feet. Very nice fragrance too. It will adapt very well to your trellis. Perhaps they need the trellis pretty early just to train them from start to grow where you want them?

The very first question is: are the roses on rootstock that thrive in your soil? If your soil is shallow, or if the roots only thrive in a shallow cone of 'good' soil, then you're not going to get height, regardless of your zone. When the original poster buys a rose, he's buying a rose that has already been pampered beyond belief, in a green house or poly house, planted in soils that are totally unlike the real world, and fed the rosey equivalent of fois gras, lobster, and eclairs to make it grow. Nothing any of us can do inthe real world will equal that kind of pampering for twelve months of the year. Well, maybe some folks in California's cooler summer/warmer winters areas can approach it, but weather survival wasn't designed into the genetics of modern roses. Not all rootstocks are alike, some force roses to grow 12 months of the year, others may help dormancy happen. Some soils are better for Dr. Huey; other soils will make roses on R. multiflora wonderful plants; still other areas demand R. x fortuniana to overcome soil problems. About public gardens....go there earliest spring. Be sure you're comparing roses there with your own roses by starting to see if their roses made it through winter. We've been to some northern public gardens in early spring and I've been shocked at the number of roses that are replaced in a given year. It's not fair of you to evaluate your home roses by comparing them to roses that last year were in California, and only recently exposed to the last gasps of an Ohio winter. FWIW, I had a hedge of 24 Graham Thomases in east Tennessee. Their main problem was a tendency to put out spring growth early in spring, and that growth would get killed, dependably, by later spring freezes. That frozen growth would then be the locus of a nasty canker that would gird and kill the cane by mid June. The most cankers I have ever counted on a single cane was thirteen on one single cane of Graham Thomas. So, I'd guess Dave protects his GT.

Wow, you certainly have patience aegis! You are somebody I would normally ask if I was having that problem! You will eventually figure out the combination to that pesky lock, of that I am sure! I recently won a similar war w a couple of non-blooming stinkers that I had. I took mine as a personal challenge and they were either going to bloom or die! I put my two stinker plants (Fantasy Gold and a noid I lovingly refer to as my cabbage plant) and put them under my brightest lights and increased the timer to 14 hours of light from the 12 they had been getting. I then changed from my normal Optimara fert and went back to my old fish emulsion fert (Espoma that I can get from Home Depot) which is a little higher in nitrogen. Also, since it is organic I felt comfortable increasing the mix ratio/potency of the fish fert within my wicking reservoirs. All of my plants are on damp river rocks but I made sure that these two plants stayed plenty humid. (After all, I was not about to let two little plants kick my butt.) After 4 weeks of this special regimen, both of these plants gave in! My Fantasy Gold is finally blooming and so is my cabbage plant! I have since placed both of these plants back into regular rotation with regular food and they seem to be doing fine. (In a few days, I will have a few more open blooms on the cabbage plant. Once I do, I will post a pic here.) Maybe somebody will know what it is. I got it as a rescue plant more than a year ago. First I had to save it, then get it to flower.

Perhaps your cell pack was vegetative reproductions, already rooted, rather than cuttings. The cell plants would do plenty of growing yet this year in-ground, but you would have to be prepared to heap the compost on next winter for protection. Next year's growth could result in some 2021 berries. On the other hand, blackberries are easy to transplant.