Thanks, Lyn, for sharing your experience. It does sound like the perfect solution for people with small gardens or lots of help. I have about 2,000 rose bushes, however, and my income no longer supports help in the garden. It takes me more than a month to prune my roses, and disbudding could take even longer, so the damage would be done long before I could get to it.
Besides, I might be able to give up my once-bloomers, but I can't imagine my garden without my climbers.
Last year I grew so tired of never seeing Cardinal de Richelieu produce pretty buds and blooms that I brought out the big guns. Although I'm against the use of chemicals in my garden in theory, I resorted to spraying the monsters with Spectracide on that rose. It kills them on contact and protects the rose from them for the next two or three weeks. It was the first time in years that I had seen perfect buds and blooms on Cardinal de Richelieu. I wouldn't go so far as to spray all of my roses, but I may use the Spectracide on other once-bloomers I particularly like in years to come.
