Thank you so much Straw, Khalid, it means so much to be able to share my roses with you....

I searched for the photo that I took when this top flush started of Andrea Stelzer. it was taken on 04/28/2016.

This (below) is two of the last 3 now starting to loose their petals, taken just now...

The only thing I wish this rose had is fragrance, but even without it she is a show stopper. This rose was the first in my garden, and showed me this is good soil for roses.

Boscobel, she likes the cooler weather it seems...

no scent at the moment, but full of buds. Lovely intense color.

Also Boscobel above.

These were taken after the Lime Sulfur treatment. I sprayed all my roses, and where it touched the Petunias, their flowers are massive, their leaves lush and the color is deeper.

Below is Clocolan. This is the only rose with leaves that come close to Straw and Khalid's roses.

with Renae happily climbing up the trellis. Very impressive rose, and no thorns....very fragrant flowers.

Clocolan grew to this size since it was planted in the heat wave of January 2016. (photo's taken today)

Below is Evelyn. She had rust badly, so about 3 weeks ago I really chopped of all the bad branches and this is how she looks now. Not just a pretty face :-)

I think Straw's advice on using Lime is starting to help....she has no more rust. I also added wood ash, but the lime seems to have made a more lasting improvement to the soil. I used about one large tablespoon per rose, focussing on Evelyn...

Something else I realized about this rose...she is going to become massive....

(at the back is my 1st prototype 'insect-hotel', just a bunch of logs covered with solid black plastic. It's a start. However, so far, no winter.... my garden still has so many insects everywhere, even butterflies. Totally weird for this time of the year.

Above is Easy Does It, still covered in blooms.

This is the hole where Golden Celebration used to be. She is now growing happily in someone else's garden, because the wind here rips her to pieces...and I have no space that would suit her. So instead of her suffering here, she has moved to 'greener pastures'.

she, Tradescant, Gertrude Jeckyll, Teddy Bear, Pat Austin, Jude The Obscure and Isidingo.

They don't like the heat here at all, I couldn't stand seeing them suffer any more. They moved to a wonderful new home in East London where it is much much cooler with much more rain as well.

Now I have space for new roses, and Firefighter is on top of that list :-)

I covered the soil with grass to keep the mychorrizae & their micro organism friends alive and kicking.

Above is Just Joey. She had rust and received a brutal clean up.

Julia's rose still has blooms as well...however almost no leaves since she started to get rust. All of them are now rust-free.

I will spray again with Lime-sulfur after a good rain, and hopefully.... I will have a rust-free spring garden...

New Dawn also had rust but still going strong.

The last but not the least - Rosemary Ladlau... amazing fragrance, strongest fragrance of all my roses right now...most beautiful thick zillion petals....stays on bush for at least a week...she is in a windy and full sun spot, but shows no distress at all.

these photo's were taken when my back was really painful, and I couldn't sit long enough to download them all, on 04/15/2016

Above - Belle Epoque and below, on the 29th of April 2016.

I have started wondering why the colors differ from mine and Khalid's - do you think it could be available Phosphorus in my soil?

Evelyn...before the rust came along...

and Compassion with a very green friend....or is this foe?

more to come :-)

Jess: I love your intense blue South African sky, and full sun. Here in my Chicagoland: , mostly cloudy, and too much shade in my garden. Your Belle Epoque has such thick and glossy foliage .. so pretty.

So sorry to hear about Golden Celebration, Pat Austin, Trandescant, Jude the Obcure, Teddy Bear, Gertrude Jekyll and Isidingo aren't suitable and were given to East London. Teddy Bear has such lovely orange color. Yellow and orange roses have higher demand for water, and prefer partial shade. Gertrude Jekyll is a child of Comte de Chambord (likes my cold and wet garden).

I saw a cute bug on the sepal of the pink rose above, wonder what's that?

Thank you for the info. of Licorice scent in PAK. Your Evelyn's new leaves are healthy. Lime works better than wood-ash for rust, since lime has the LOWEST salt index, at 4, versus much higher salt in wood-ash. The content of salt, or Chloride, in plant tissue make roses more susceptible to rust. My sister's roses in California have rust problem, whereas rust is rare in my Chicagoland. She has alkaline soil, but tap water higher in sodium. Her blood pressure is much higher than mine (104/76).

Field Roebuck in Texas who wrote a book on roses, stated that lime is effective for rust control. Lime is more effective to de-salt a soil than gypsum. Lime has salt index of 4, versus gypsum has salt index of 8, twice more.

Jess: These are wonderful photos.....

Your Clocolan looks so stunning, such neat foliage and almost no thorns. I didn't find it in HMF though. How is the fragrance? Easy Does It looks beautiful too.

You gave away Golden Celebration, Tradescant, Gertrude Jeckyll, Teddy Bear, Pat Austin, Jude The Obscure and Isidingo????? My Golden Celebration, Tradescent, Gertrude Jekyll, Pat Austin, Jude the Obscure...... all are in pots where they are more vulnerable to heat. All of them have survived temps ranging between 105*F to 115*F for over a month now and are growing well..... I don't see any problem. What was the maximum temp range in your area?

Colour of your's and my Belle Epoque lool quite similar, not much difference. Yours are much better but my bush was planted in mid Feb this year and is just young. Hopefully it will perform better from Sep onwards when it gets cooler. And your Rosemary Ladlou is absolutely stunning.

Waiting for more photos to come......

Just Joey before her rust attack.

Mr Lincoln, before his...

Tradescant before hers.....Easy Does It in the background.

Easy Does It on the same day. No rust.

Princess Alexander of Kent. A truly fantastic rose.

Hey Jude. bad bad rust attack, no leaves now. It's almost impossible to think this was about a month ago.

Another Evelyn photo. I am glad she is so strong.

Clocolan and Just Joey in the background.

Vanilla. The aphid creche-rose.

Vanilla in full bloom (above)

Renae also blooming with Clocolan at the back.

reaching above the cat-kennel-fence - Heirloom Amaranth - (Grain- and Golden Giant).

The birds love this. Most healthy grain seed for them and us. and most delicious. but...you have to pop it first.

Thank you sharing the last summer flush with me (this was taken during mid-to-end-April), ...before mr. Rust arrived...

Thanks Straw, for all the great advice. I realize how much I still need to learn about soil and how nutrients work.

I also realized that with a huge garden, I need the assistance of beneficial fungi and micro-organisms - living soil, thanks Khalid and Sam for all the advice on that.

That is great news Straw... I added lime to all my roses, but gave a little bit more to those that really came down bad with rust, like Evelyn.

We are expecting rain in our valley this Friday coming, (first in months), which means the Lime will now start leaching downwards and I think by spring there will be a great improvement on the overall health of these roses.

I also hope to have compost by Oct-Dec, but I won't rush that...I will in that case keep on adding liquid manure like the type your'e using with alfalfa and comfrey tea....(while waiting for the compost to mature)

Fantastic blooms. Thanks for sharing these wonderful pics, Jess. Your PAOK has very upright high centered blooms. PAOK usually has drooping blooms

Thank you so much Khalid, I wouldn't mind drooping blooms at all, it's beautiful... Mine might have received too much Potassium?

Straw..do you have advice...?

I'm sorry I only saw more posts higher up...

Straw, that's a massive shiny green 'buzzard'-fly on Compassion, never seen one like that before :-)

Yes Khalid...sad moment...especially for Golden Celebration...but she was really sad in the wind here...and the heat....same with the others...for her the heat wasn't as much of a problem as the wind though. We get mini-tornado's here...not all the time, but when it happens, only the strong can survive. Rosemary Ladlau is in the same area and she is fine. That same windy area also has sun all day.

but, life is a balance of holding on, and letting go...and now I have space for roses that are stronger...and I know these roses will be happier where they are now.

My temps reached 45 C for many days the past late summer. No rain, just hot scorching sun.

Clocolan has a fantastic fragrance, you would love that rose. and she doesn't scorch either. Needs almost no water.

I think your'e right about the blooms of Belle Epoque, they are already beautiful and it's only been a few months...

Thanks for the explanation Jess. I couldn't find Clocolan on HMF but did find it on Ludwidg's Roses. What type of fragrance Clocolan has?

best regards

Clocolan is 7/0-8/10 fruity, a typical rose perfume fragrance, but not as powerful as Hey Jude and Sharifa Asma.

Missed this statement when I read the post earlier.....

"but, life is a balance of holding on, and letting go..."

So true.... and we would have so many "less" problems / things to worry if we realise this. Well said Jess.

Jess: thank you for posting awesome pics. of your roses in South Africa .. all your stems go straight up to heaven. Yes, potassium will do that. I put red-lava rock on my 30 tomato plants this year, and all of them have thick stems, much wider and stronger than last year .. they don't flop over after rain.

It's the ratio of potassium to calcium which makes strong stems: I also put gypsum in the planting hole for my rock-hard clay, since the high magnesium in my clay competes with calcium, I use 6 times more gypsum than red-lava-rock. But someone with neutral to acidic soil will have more available calcium. the ratio suggested by hydroponics of twice more potassium than calcium is more suitable for neutral & loamy soil.

Khalid: roses in pots do the "FLOPPING" over since it's hard to give pots continuous potassium for leaching out during rain or watering. I see "flopping" over & weak stems with roses in nursery too.

Continuous potassium is released in the ground due to more soil, and less leaching as in retentive clay. Potassium mobility is a 3, it leaches out more than calcium.

Thank you Khalid, and also Straw for explaining that to me... I was starting to get worried that I caused my soil to lock up nutrients due to adding way too much Potassium Sulfate ...I will most definitely also start using these methods:

http://forums.gardenweb.com/discussions/3954615/mineral-deficiency-symptoms-in-roses

http://forums.gardenweb.com/discussions/3528532/npk-and-ph-of-organic-matters

http://forums.gardenweb.com/discussions/3947136/chicken-manure

Photo taken 19 Feb 2016

Rhapsody in Blue, photo taken today.

Photo taken 19 March 2016 - Frohsinn'82

Photo's (above) taken today. Same rose bush - Frohsinn'82

Petunias with areas touched by Lime Sulfur spray being lighter and filled with moisture...? The blooms are deeper as well.

the Mayflower decided it's time to start blooming. 2 months too early. We'll see if it changes it's mind now that snow fell all around here.

Today is really cold. The icy front hit us hard and snow fell all around - but not in this village...not high enough I think.

Thanks so much for the info Straw... I realized that for a while now I noticed the blooms changing to more purple, less orange... I prefer that especially in these roses..

Is this because of Phosphorus becoming less for some reason? Or maybe the Dolomitic Lime I added about 3 weeks ago started releasing nutrients and perhaps not having added Potassium Sulfate/ Gypsum now for about 3-weeks also contributed to the change of color?

Easy Does It. Just suddenly. No rust, I checked...what could the reason be...just one big branch at the back...

and, underneath the remaining leaves of the Iceberg-climbers...Rust....

But on a positive note - here is Sharifa Asma, with new growth, rust free. Evelyn at the back. Sharifa is getting a new spot with more space... Evelyn will start crowding her this coming season.

You were right about the wind Sam. It was like mini-tornadoes whirling around my house last nigh the cats were very scared..

but not one rose was broken, thank goodness, and blooms of Andrea Stelzer look like nothing happened.

at the back the trees are standing bare now.

Something I've noticed on Alexander Girault. Is this Rose Mosaic virus, and if so, should I remove the canes/the rose? will it spread? Will you please advice Straw?

I really love this rose...New Dawn..

a bloom on Princess A of K.

a few buds on Belle Epoque. Winter is only for today. Tomorrow it starts getting warmer again, until the next 'cold front' :-)

Jess: Calcium, phosphorus, and potassium are positive-charges (cations) and compete for absorption. When you apply Garden lime, UP the calcium means less phosphorus will be available. Garden lime, if it has magnesium, will improve the yellow and orange color. When too much lime is applied, soil becomes too alkaline, and less phosphorus is available, see below for phosphorus deficiency:

" Plants deficient in phosphorus are stunted in growth and often have an abnormal dark-green color. Sugars can accumulate and cause anthocyanin pigments to develop, producing a reddish-purple color. This can sometimes be seen in early spring on low phosphorus sites. "

Phosphorus deficiency is rare in my alkaline clay. it happens only if there's poor drainage. Phosphorus is abundant at neutral or slightly acidic pH.

Amarula Profusion - a few last blooms.

the butterfly bush - it was covered with butterflies, until the day before yesterday, now they're all gone. I will make sure to grab the camera if/when they return. the fragrance is 'pure spring'.

Boscobel is very happy with whatever is happening - the cold, the leaves-mulch, the Dolomitic Lime, the Lime Sulfur spray, the rain..

the rose Cocktail is still alive and has taken now. Leaves everywhere I love it...these are from the Chinese Elm, tiny brownish leaves, not great for compost, am I right when I say that?

Claire Austin - highly recommendable for a hot garden.

Clocolan showing no signs of distress.

Jess: Just saw your picture of Alexander Girault with RMV. That happens when there's a potassium deficiency. I put tons of gypsum in the planting hole of my Gruss an Teplitz, plus acidic cracked corn. resulting in RMV really bad for the first 2 years, thanks to soil pH too low plus too much calcium ... that create a deficiency in potassium.

On the 3rd year I put high-potassium & high-iron red-lava rock on Gruss, and give it sulfate of potash only. RMV is gone, leaves are healthy. RMV is a virus which afflict roses when they are weakest. Potassium boost the immune system of plants, so they can fight back virus.

Just saw your pics: Boscobel is perfect, and Claire Austin is so pretty, I like your Rose Cocktail and Amarula Profusion. I used to have 2 butterfly bushes: a pink and a purple .. then winter-killed them so short and it took forever to come back. Butterfly bushes don't live long in my cold zone.

underneath the apple tree, with Comfrey under leaves

Vanilla, with new growth and many blooms.

Some leaves on some roses - light green - is this a good time to add Blackstrap Molasses Straw? Should I wait for 2 months until spring? Although, as mentioned - our winter consists of a few 'cold' days in between very warm almost summer days.

thank you Straw, I only saw your posts on top now...

So far, I see a general improvement with all my roses now, except Easy Does It. She will be pruned clean tomorrow. Thank you for all your research in soil nutrients Straw, - the Dolomitic Lime is working wonders. I only added about 2 tablespoons each for now and will wait now for 6 months - or until next Fall, before adding any more...Or...should I wait much longer?

I will search for Mono-potassium (sulphate)? (am I correct?) to add to any roses with leaves similar to AG. I am so happy to hear it can be cured.

After I sprayed with the Lime Sulfur spray, the leaves of all my roses are extremely healthy and glossy...for the first time in some cases since spring growth started.

'Winter' here, is like a tango with winter and summer dancing together... and it's a complicated and nerve-wrecking sequence between giving nutrients and water, getting ready for spring in 2 month's time, and giving time for winter in between to do it's killing.

I use lots of leaves now, to create soil where fungi can thrive so that they can bring Phosphorus to the roots, because it seems to me that there might be lots of Phosphorus but that it is locked and can't be taken up by the plants without the help of the fungi, and adding Phosphorus inhibits their well-being am I correct?

Did the storm get by SA?

Jess: Just saw pic. of pale leaves on your Vanilla bush. It's NOT iron deficiency, it's just paleness from nitrogen not moving up, due to cooler temp. I have pale leaves in early spring, and they green up when the temp. is hotter.

No need to use molasses with chelated iron unless the upper-leaves are VERY pale.

thanks Straw, I am so glad to hear I'm doing the right thing with the leaves. I add some in each hole I dig now, for planting only in about 3 months...I was wondering about something else...

how about I add a tiny bit of compost activator and the liquid feed containing fish emulsion & blood meal, then by spring those leaves would surely be composted and each hole be full of beneficial organisms like fungi? - I mean, the leaves that I added in the holes already dug - to be ready for spring-summer-planting.

yes Sam. to me this feels really cold, however, I am sure it can't be compared to the winters over where you and Straw - and Khalid are...

The wind was bad again last night - It sounded like mini tornadoes....now there is no wind... tomorrow I think there might be frost...

From left - Clocolan, the orange is Easy Does It and the Purple is Purple Glow.

Jess: those roses above look so perfect & petals are firm, and colors are vivid. Blood meal works within a week in warm weather, and fish emulsion works immediately (within a day). Those stuff are best applied directly to roses, when you want new shoots & leaves to appear fast.

Jess: Wonderful pics, once again. So, Claire Austin performed very well in hot weather. The blooms did not fry out and it held the fragrance as well?

Clocolan, Easy Does It, Purple Glow.... all look so beautiful.

Hope the upcoming stormy weather passes away without damage.

best regards

thank you so much Straw and Khalid -

About Claire Austin - she never scorches... and she is in full sun - no shade at all till after sunset....but the fragrance is less after I've been using too much gypsum and Potassium...she didn't get rust like so many others. Her petals drop sooner in the heat though, unlike Rosemary Ladlau, Andrea Stelzer and Froshin'82 which keeps their blooms for weeks.

Over these two days we had 19 mm rain which is absolutely wonderful. No branches of any tree or rose was broken even though the wind was really bad...

Our pruning season starts next month but this year my roses will already be pruned by then, and hopefully rust free.

Thanks Jess. It means Claire Austin could be another Austin white that can be considered. I already have two, Glamis Castle and Winchester Cathedral.

best regards

Yes Khalid, as far as my DA's go, this is a good rose for hot gardens. Boscobel is also a winner, Evelyn, Sharifa Asma, and PAK....almost forgot to mention - so is Graham Thomas.

Rosemary Ladlau and Andrea Stelzer are the top winners though. Thick petals.

I heard that Ludwig's roses might soon have La France available... :-))))!!!

Here they are - this is the same bloom I posted above...Andrea Stelzer - on a very windy day. (taken just now)

Rosemary Ladlau below

And this little plant is Nigella Sativa.. I hope.. I sowed some there and now I'll be waiting in anticipation for the flowers...

Vanilla with new growth and Froshinn'82* - old blooms fading now. (*these are the blooms posted right at the top of this thread. She does scorch when the temps reach 35C +)

winter garden. Only after frost will the grass be yellow.

Compassion, full of buds, reaching up above 3 m. One season's growth.

She only scorches after the temps reach 35C +, always a lovely fragrance.

Easy Does It and Purple Glow after brutal cleaning up and some pruning.

I looked up to take this photo for Straw - Dumbo says hi all the way from Africa :-)

Belle Epoque - still with buds and she hasn't been dead-headed in a while.

Another one for Straw - Amarula Profusion looking really lovely today

I'm using a horrible camera, my other's batteries are kaput. This one has too much contrast (and I don't have any idea how to improve that)

Another kind of Butterfly bush starting to get buds. Also indigenous.

Boscobel at the back of new buds on Frohsinn'82

Clocolan looking good after a clean-up. Renae is very happy at the back

Stinging Nettle coming up wild everywhere.

Sharifa Asma and new growth - with a Kale that will soon be winter soup...

Wedding Garland, lovely fragrance, strong fast growing rose, naturally arches.

Doesn't scorch.

It would seem like most white roses do not scorch?

Coriander and Buckwheat.

Graham Thomas - he has also received a brutal clean-up like all the others.

Lamarque starting with lots of new buds

Perfumed Breeze blooming happily away.

Now this is my big worry - normally this would be winter now.

There shouldn't be any flowers anywhere. The grass should be yellow.

this should have happened after May 15th with severe frost starting about that time.

Has anyone else been experiencing late summers/early winters/later winters/late monsoons etc?

Thank you, Jess, for those pics. of intense blue sky .. we don't have such, it's mostly cloudy here, or grayish sky.

Your Belle Epoque has shiny & glossy foliage .. that one like your red-clay in South Africa, so does Easy does it. Amarula Profusion is so pretty. Thank you. I also like your Boscobel (on my wish-list).

In a mild winter when I wore T-shirt and short during Christmas, and roses are green to the tip, with green leaves? They need to be pruned drastically, before spring rain hit. That warm year I DID NOT prune Golden Celebration down to BELOW MY KNEE. I left it alone and it shot up to over 5 feet or 1.5 meter tall. It was too tall, and became stingy for the entire year !!

Same with Cantigny Rose Park after that warm winter. Roses were green to the tip, so they left it above 2 feet or 0.6 meter .. then we got into extremely hot & dry summer, and these roses shot up to 7 feet, or 2 meter tall, zero blooms, just tall and ugly, rather than bushy with blooms.

In contrast, after a brutal winter when the snow was up to my fence .. Mother Nature/winter pruned roses down to my ankle .. they grew NEW branches, loaded with blooms for spring & summer. Same with Crown Princess Magareta (a climber), I pruned it down really short to 1 foot, or 0.3 meter, since the workers had to fix the aluminum siding on my house. It grew brand new branches .. best spring flush ever !!

Repeated bloomers bloom on new wood, so hard-pruning after a flush, or after winter makes sense. Once-bloomer don't like pruning in my cold-zone, but repeated-bloomer, and esp. climbers, benefit from hard-pruning.

When roses are too tall, it's much harder to pump up water and nutrients all the way up. It's easier for roses to get water and nutrients when they are trained horizontally, sap can flow easier. Same with pruning them really short before rainy season: less woody stem to support, to save the water & nutrients for blooms instead.

Thanks for these great tips Straw... I have just about pruned 50% of my roses now - the ones that were sick...Now I will focus on more...I am starting to see why roses also need to be pruned in late summer. It's all starting to make sense...

how important it is to keep the airflow, and keep a general hygiene to prevent diseases from taking hold.

and, how important this is before autumn start, so that they can develop strong new growth before it gets too cold...if it does...and last but not least - to prevent these diseases from over wintering...

and the bonus will be more flowers... :-)))

Jess: The ideal time to prune roses is when they go dormant, at the COLDEST time of the year. I prune roses right after a hard frost which zaps out the leaves. Then I prune roses again in spring time, since we have more dead branches from -20 below zero.

Crown Princess Magareta got pruned twice, right before winter, and again in spring before the rain hit. My second pruning produce more blooms.

I checked on multiflora rootstock: 1) yes, it likes acidic, and my Comte de Chambord (grafted on multiflora) loves sulfate of potash (21% sulfur), gypsum .. but hate pea-gravel (pH 9). It loves tons of acidic rain, so I run the down-pour from my rain-spout via a hose onto that rose.

1. Salty fertilizer isn't best for roses grafted on multiflora. Multiflora picks up salt well, thus more prone to rust.
2. Multiflora prefers cool & rainy like the climate they are native to: Japan, Korea and Eastern China. They are imported to cool & rainy eastern United States in 1866 as rootstock for ornamental roses, and became invasive.

I notice that my 2 own-root Comte de Chambord can take heat & drought much better than my Comte grafted on Multiflora: it sulks at temp above 90, and can't handle dryness.

thank you for this info Straw

If Evelyn is multiflora rootstock - will she still benefit from adding Lime?

I think I should start making own-root cuttings...

I will do the pruning like you advised.

Was it the salt in Potassium that I gave in excess that could have done this?

Jess: So glad to know that Boscobel can stand up to heat .. I love dark-pink roses.

Jess: Fascinated to see your roses. You have such a huge place to grow roses. I wish I have such a big area.... I live inside a city where I can only have such huge lawn if I am a billionaire (which I am not). That's why I want to build my house outside Islamabad city, towards the mountains where I can buy ten times more land in the same price.

It's such a nice feeling to see your beautiful lawn with blue sky and trees.

best regards

Jess: Per your question of Evelyn grafted on multiflora: I would go with the rootstock: Multiflora hates alkaline stuff that harden the soil .. multiflora prefers loamy soil. It's risky to give Evelyn acid, the safest thing is to make the soil more loamy, so potassium will be more available.

Extreme acid doesn't work with multiflora-rootstock either. My Comte (grafted on multiflora) is breaking out in blackspots right now. When I planted it, I put tons of acid stuff in the hole: gypsum, cracked corn (pH 4) .. but that backfired on me. What I should had done was to use coarse sand to make soil fluffy, so I don't have to give sulfate of potash so often to that multiflora-rootstock.

Khalid: That's exciting to have your house newly built !! My house was newly built when we bought it. It was so much fun ordered the design, and chose the colors for kitchen counter, carpet, doors, exterior color of house. I chose white sidings for my house, looks good with the flower. Your wife will have fun picking out details for the newly built house.

Thank you Straw and Khalid, and I am happy to hear that you are planning to move closer to the mountains and nature...with MORE SPACE FOR ROSES....

Where I stay is also much more affordable than in a town or city - there I wouldn't be able to afford a place with any garden...

thank you for the advice and info Straw... So far, Evelyn is very happy and has no more rust at all... she has new leaves and I check them daily. She surely has a sweet tooth ;-)

There is still a rose or 2 ...(..)...that are showing signs of distress. the new leaves on some turn 'old' within a week. On Evelyn they all stay beautiful and healthy. I'm keeping a falcon's eye on them...and I found one last leave on Iceberg with rust...very distressing...but soon I will pruning...(now that winter is here at last)

I am just worried that some only bloom on old wood, but maybe that is a sacrifice I will have to make to eliminate rust for good...?

Jess: If you have enough water to make them grow after harsh pruning, they'll bloom well. Our winter kill rose down to the crown, they send up new shoots every spring (loaded with blooms). Except for once-bloomer like Le Nia Rias (winter-killed was too harsh it didn't have any old wood to bloom !!) Once bloomers are old-garden roses, and they bloom on old-wood.

Even climbers like Annie L. McDowell (a spin-off from Renae) got pruned really bad by my winter, down to 4 inch, or 0.1 meter ... but Annie sprout new branches loaded with blooms early spring.

I still have one problem Straw.

After having a few really cold days, it is 'summer' again today.

which means if I prune now and they start sprouting new shoots, and another even colder front arrives, will that hurt them badly?

this is what winter is like over here - a continual summer with just a few cold spells in between...and until end August the cold spells get worse.

Hi Jess: If the roots of roses are under soil, they can handle 35 F or 1.6 Celsius. It got down to that low early May, and none of my roses (fully sprouted) get hurt. My tomato planted near the house didn't get hurt either.

But I left my bare-root Fragrant Cloud outside when it's 32 F, or 0 C, and that got stunt by the freezing-temp. If I had planted that bare-root, it would be fine.