It looks like a climber to me too.
To add to what Alyssa and Lyn said, I always have to qualify my advice with a little info about my climate. I would dig a hole 3 or 4 feet wide and 2 feet deep if I moved a rose. That's because, while I have fabulous soil, I also have a droughty climate, and I don't irrigate much. The rose roots have to spread out to find more water. They also have huge anchor roots, maybe because they need to hang on for dear life in our wind! While Brenden and I share a zone 6 continental climate, I can guarantee it's very different. I have a super long growing season, and no snow cover to protect on those wildly varying winter temps. We hit 24 degrees Saturday morning. Tuesday's forecast is 80. Some years I have dieback to the ground, this year I have virtually none on any rose, even zone 7/8 Chinas.
People in my same city may give different advice because they have city heat and fences protecting their plants. I deal with rabbits, coyotes and deer pruning my roses, and turkeys, armadillos, and skunks scratching and exposing roots. They deal with chemical overspray from neighbors.
My roses are in beds with other plants, and I'm a big believer in companion planting, but I don't let anything grow in the "drip line" of the rose. Just a light layer of mulch there, all for the reasons Alyssa gave. Underplanting, or companion planting, is a whole nother issue, and there's several good threads on that. My advice is, if you are renovating a whole area for your mom, be careful what plants you use around the roses so that the roots don't steal from the roses. They will need space to grow roots without competition if you are moving them. You are ok with most annuals, and rose moss (annual portulaca) is a good one if you can grow that up there. Just no vines. (except clematis
)
This link
http://www.rose.org/rose-care-...
Has good information on pruning old garden roses. As you can see, it is very different from the instructions you'll get from a store selling mostly hybrid teas. The link gives a possible reason as to why you have not seen blooms.
You are doing such a wonderful thing for your mother. As a mom, I say WOW.
