I have a stanard rose bush that is now three years old. In this time it has produced very few flowers and this year in particular has grown very tall. I have pruned this rose each spring and this year trimed the shoots because they were getting so tall. It is now getting out of hand with one shoot approx 4ft tall. What is wrong? What do I do?
Hi ajf, Standard roses (hybrid tea or floribunda) are normaly budded or grafted onto a vigorous wild briar or rosa rugosa spp, so anything below the graft should be pruned off, but obviously not the stem!
You really need to work on a two year cycle :-
1FIRST YEAR Feb-Mar Cut back thick stems to 3-5 buds or about 6 in-2 oct- nov at the end of the growing season,tip back main stems and cut out any soft or unripe shoots.
2nd YEAR and there-after Cut out any dead, deseased, weak or crossing branches, at the same time prune back new shoots to 3-5 buds/eyes or 6 in and remaining laterals to 2-4 buds or4-6 inches. Good Luck Tbird+
If, as Thunderbird states, you have shoots coming out of the root area below the graft knob, the case, in my experience, is rather hopeless. After struggling to keep such shoots trimmed and encourage growth from above the graft, I finally gave up and removed the rose. Sometimes, with some varietals, this just happens and there's not much one can do about it. Best of luck!