It's just a big shrub, and I have always treated it as such.

thanks for the quick response.

My Clair Matin wants to sort of climb, so I bend those main canes sideways on a fence that it's near to encourage more laterals. Then I encourage those laterals sideways too. I don't find that mine needs any particular pruning to shorten it in my zone, as it dies to the ground each year, just the horizontal canes to encourage more laterals like most of my roses.

Cynthia

Thanks Cynthia. Mine is cane hardy to the tips, yay!!, so it gets pretty tall. I bought two two years ago from Heirloom as bands and the longest canes are close to 7 feet. I have them trained horizontally but didn't know if I should deadhead, maybe that would have been a better term to use instead of prune, like a rose bush to encourage new buds. Do you deadhead or just let the roses fall naturally? Do you cut the laterals back to encourage more blooms?
Sharon

Cynthia, my guess is that it is one of those roses that wants to get to a certain size before reblooming well. Mine grows to about 4 or 5 ft, then it starts to bend over naturally. Deadheading is good. I wouldn't cut back laterals since I think that effort would be counterproductive.

Would you dead head or just let it be?

I agree with MG, I'd deadhead to remove the blooms and I do that (as possible) for all my 1000+ roses regardless of type. I wouldn't trim back the laterals since those are the canes that will bloom for you and make for a bushier climber. The term deadhead does help clarify what you'd meant in your message - go for it!

Cynthia

Thanks Cynthia. I'll just snip the spent flowers to make room for more :-)