I've got a 2-year-old Ardoisee de Lyon that is pretty much the same way. I'm going to thin out the twiggy and thinner canes and prune the larger ones back by a third.

I've been told you can take a strong hand with pruning HPs.

Eric

Yes hp's do put out a large number of canes compared to ht's. As with ht's cut out small weak canes to give the thicker canes more room. Most of my hp's which are ownroot have fifteen to twenty canes by the end of the summer.

Lance

Lance, in the spring when you prune out the weaker canes, about how many of the 15-20 canes are left? I'm assuming that I do not want to thin the HP down to 4-5 strong canes. Evidently a spring-pruned HP would still have maybe 12-15 canes?

Eric, thanks for mentioning pruning my HPs back by 1/3. I hadn't even gotten around to thinking about that yet and I'm sure I would have had questions by the time I did think of it.

Kate

I thin out canes that are crossing first or canes which are damaged and finally the thinner canes. I try to have the total down to ten to twelve and thin out the center canes if possible.

Currently Monsieur Boncenne has 18 canes at the end of the growth season. These include a few new canes which may be used to replace older canes next spring after accounting for winter storm damage.

An interesting thing I have observed with hp's is to not deadhead like you would with ht's. At most I snap off spent blooms and do not cut back the cane to any point like I would for a ht. I have found that the bloom continues for a longer period this way.

I have pictures on my Facebook page of Monsieur Boncenne blooming into September after starting in early June. It never stopped the entire time.

Lance

Kate, are your Mrs. John Laings grafted or own-root?

I like my HP's to feel the steel. They are the original exhibition rose, and they respond well to pruning. I don't have any hard and fast rules about the thickness or number of canes. My requirements are that they be productive, self-supporting and non-cannibalizing. As long as the canes maintain a more or less upright orientations, are productive of bloom, and are non-damaging of one another, I can let them be. Here they tend to sunburn during the summer drought, so it's easy to sort out which canes should be removed altogether. The blooms of those I grow tend to be large or heavy, so I always prune to stiff wood and remove weak, spindly canes altogether.

york-rose, if I remember correctly, my Mrs. John Laings were from Pickering--so I'd guess that means they are grafted? (After a few years, I can never remember whether a rose was grafted or not.) Why? Does that make a difference?

Berndoodle, thanks for the additional info. Like I said, I'm new to the HP world and not entirely sure what to expect or do with them.

Kate

Thanks, Kate.

I have a suspicion that for me it might make a difference for me. I've once tried to grow Mrs. John Laing here, but I planted a band and it never did anything but struggle before it died.

Oh, york, I'm so sorry. You really should try Mrs. John Laing again--maybe grafted from Pickering? She has the loveliest blooms--very big and full.

I've never planted a band because I worried they would do just what yours did. I know others get them to grow successfully, but I don't trust them. Besides, who wants to wait for a band to grow up? Hard enough waiting for a new grafted rose to put out its first bloom!

Kate