I recently took over the communal garden in my apartment complex. So please excuse my mess and my garden bed. It's a work in progress. While pulling out 5 inches of weeds and grass I discovered 2 very unkempt rose bushes... I don't know if you can even call one a bush. Everything in the garden is being strangled by this insane climbing weed. I'm not sure what type of roses they are, only that no one has cared for them in 20-25+ years. They've never been winterized (zone 6a). They were just recently lightly pruned, one more than the other because it was rubbing against itself and had caused quite a lot of damage. Again I'm not sure what type they are so if anybody wants to just identify that would be huge in my research. I don't even know how they're still alive honestly. I really want to try and save the single cane. I mean it's surviving but I want it to thrive with more canes. I was thinking about digging it up this spring and re planting it with that whole knob just underground.... I've read conflicting advice on cutting the whole top off... i just don't want to kill it after it survived 20 years of NH winters. Ha! I added some before and after pictures, close ups of the flowers and i tried to get two angles. Thank you in advance to anybody who answers.

Well you've done a great job already! Cleaning out the bottom weeds and taking off the dead wood was a good start. The orange one is a Hybrid Tea of some variety. You don't need to prune it now. Just take off the blooms when they die. Otherwise just leave it alone until next spring. In cold zones you only do deep pruning in the early spring when the rose is coming out of dormancy. For now just keep it watered and give it a dose of any balanced fertilizer per the package directions.

It's hard to tell from the one spent bloom what the red one is. It could be just root stock coming up. Meaning that the original variety died out and the root stock it was grafted to has taken over.
The way you can tell is if it reblooms or not. The most common red root stock is Dr. Huey and it only blooms once a season. So if this rose blooms again THIS year it is not root stock. Get pictures of the buds and the blooms at all stages. If it does not bloom again you will have to decide if you want to keep it or replace it with something else. Dr. Huey is a great root stock but not a very good garden rose. He has a beautiful spring flush and then tends to be disease riddled the rest of the season. There are many other roses that are beautiful, bloom more and are more resistant to diseases.

I think your nasty vine is called bindweed or fake morning glory. It's awful stuff! I am battling it myself and sometimes I think it's winning!

SeilMI it's totally fake morning glory! It a close second too... close inspection to not rip out all the morning glories last year in a friend's garden. I completely forgot about that. Bright orange roots that both spread and burrow. Really an amazing little plant... just not in my garden. And this poor old rose bush blooms that way. It's so tired and so burnt out that I think it used to be some kind of tea hybrid variety as well but it's struggling so hard that it only has one layer of petals. I'm watching it but I truly don't think it's supposed to be like a French variety where they kind of lay out flat. I think it's so depleted that this it's finally shot at propagating... these pitiful little flowers. It has at least 5 more flowers buds that I saw today while taking pictures. I took some more just now but it's getting dark. I will snap some more pictures in the morning before they grow for the day. Ripping this thing out and throwing away a live rose bush is like my biggest nightmare. Soooo much guilt. I read another idea about "making it standard" I don't know rose terms but basically make it a small rose tree intentional bent... my understanding was kind of like the training stage of bonsai.
I fed them both today with just a standard fertilizer.

You've done a wonderful job already. That's a good irrigation system...make use of the rainwater. I assume you will dismantle that in the winter...in seacoast New Hampshire!
I'd like to see pictures next spring. I think your attention is going to make a big difference ...and more canes. Patience.

Big Apple umm no actually. That stupid drain stays there year round. I was going to encourage the run off to go elsewhere. I never considered watering my new baby with it...
And I'm making a trip to the local nursery tomorrow morning, fingers crossed on my selection this late in the planting season but yes I'm really excited to see it next year too. Not just the roses but the result of all my hard work. Also here's more bud pictures of the presumed Dr. Huey. Also Thank you to both of you for the compliments! Sorry I didn't mention that the first time.

I don't think that's dr huey either. Too much pink in it. The dr is a deep red.

pepper23 said:I don't think that's dr huey either. Too much pink in it. The dr is a deep red.

I've been researching more myself and I agree. I talked to the neighbor apparently it has always been of some French variety... it's always had a single layer of petals

I'd recommend adding soil to the bed so that you bury the bottom three or four inches of the rose, then mulch the area. It looks like the bud union is exposed, and by burying it, you'll encourage any dead wood on it to rot away, allowing for new basals to emerge. It may also allow the roses to form roots from the buried cane, which will also mean potential new basals forming over time.

The salmon-orange rose looks like it has a sucker coming up from the rootstock -- the shoot that's out front and starting to arch. I can't tell for sure, but it looks like it's coming from below the bud union. Compare its leaves and prickles to the other canes -- the most common rootstock is 'Dr. Huey', and it has few thorns, grows as a once-blooming climber, and won't have any more flowers this season. If it's a sucker, you'll want to scrape soil away at its base, trace it to its origination, and yank it off. Don't cut it -- this will encourage side shoots of the sucker to emerge.

Good job on clearing out the area!

:-)

~Christopher

Is that true, Christopher? I'm glad to learn that. I've always just clipped away.
I'm going to have to pay more attention to what I'm clipping and what I'm
yanking. Thanks.

Ralph Snodsmith was the host of a radio gardening show for many years. I still remember him talking about "yanking" off errant growth, not cutting it off. Good advice.

Christopher... as soon as I read this I went down and checked. Fortunately for me i don't think it's a sucker. Just weird growth. Lol. It is coming right out of the bud union bottom... like still part of it but it is at the bottom of it... so ???... hahaha. Y'all are gonna make me an expert. Oh I'll just go take another picture. Haha... bear with me...ok here we go



Also i do plan on mulching the whole bed I'm just waiting on some mail order bulbs before I go ahead and cover everything. I figured it would just be easier to wait. And ok you're saying just add more dirt interesting.... my thing with that is I don't want one part of the bed to be like 8 inches taller than everything else. Lol.

Also for anybody else that noticed I am acutely aware of rose slugs now. Lol working on it.

Update for anybody who cares. Thank you all so much for your comments and time! I was able to rid both my plants of rose slugs and just in time. I reburied the cane and added more mulch around the base. It's been blooming all summer long so it seems pretty happy.
I'm still a little iffy on how to winterize the single cane. I don't want to cut that whole thing down to 18 inches right? Just winterize as is? My plan is 6 to 8 inches of mulch around the base, chicken wire circle filled with pine needles.

What worked for your rose slugs? They seem to love one of my rose bushes. That bush also seems to have thrips just to put icing on the cake.

@kbaker34 I have had success helping out some single caners by the addition of alfalfa meal. It helps to encourage basal break production because of a natural chemical triacontanol. I read it described somewhere as telling the rose to @bloom you fool bloom!" Loved that. Lol

That reddish pink, single rose could be an early Hybrid Tea 'Bonnie Jean' from 1933. I can't be sure because I can't see the center of the flower. Does it have a large boss of stamens? And is the area around the stamens a bit lighter in color than the rest of the petals?

@Hiyamakki I actually just used Bayer's Advanced Rose and Flower Insect Killer. I believe it will also kill your thripes. I'd hear a few people suggest it so I tried it out. It only lasts 2 weeks so it's almost time to reapply but so far it's worked great. The slugs really started to stunt its growth and it has since started to flourish again. I really applied this generously all over the plant, every single leaf and don't forget under the leaves, that's where the slugs take refuge (i wore some disposable gloves).

@schrammd
Interesting... i don't think my neighbors bought anything super rare. They probably bought this at a local nursery... but yes it does get lighter at the center and it has a beautiful cluster at its center... i tried to find the best pictures I could find. I think it's finally done blooming for the season.