Porkpal: Thanks for your comments. I shifted in my current house in late 2014 and planted first batch of rose bushes in Jan 2015 and then next batch in Jan 2016. I have close to 75 bushes in pots (mostly 14 to 18" pots) and over 50 in ground as well. There is no more space in the ground so any additions will have to go to pots. Local rose nurseries graft roses in monsoon, mostly on centifolia root stock and they are available for sale as medium size bushes in Dec to Feb, ie after 6-7 months. Roses grow very fast in my climate. These young bushes are supplied with soil around roots and wrapped in hay. They have to be planted within two weeks and for once, they go dormant, shed all leaves and then regrow them by springs, ie, Mar / Apr. So the roses planted in Jan 2015 were grafted in July 2014 and those in Jan 2016 in July 2105. In addition, I am carrying few old roses in large size pots (5-10 years old) and than, there are many David Austin, Kordes and Tantau roses that I imported from UK and Germany. These roses are on multiflora root stock mostly. Many old varieties from these breeders are available from local nurseries but new varieties have to be imported. So collecting latest varieties is quite a hardwork.
We prune our roses in winters here though I feel there is no real need of pruning the roses in Islamabad as they don't go dormant in the real sense due to mild winters (min temp -3*C). Actually, if not pruned, they keep blooming in winters. However, pruning makes the bush more vigorous for next season. I do pruning of my rose in Dec and Jan.
best regards
