Eleven feet! That must be a GT record. Good luck with reining in the abundance. Don't forget your thorn-proof gauntlets! Carol

Thanks. I have gotten the entire thing down to about 6 feet of living canes, but tomorrow I have to go in there and take out at least one huge old old cane, and separate the others so they are not rubbing on each other. The poor clematis is saying "wha happened...?".

Jackie

Whoa! Have a before/after photo? I always love seeing your amazing garden... even in the winter!

I can easily see it getting to 11 ft. Mine gets to a good 9 feet in my cold climate! Pruning it back might even give you a better bloom!

I love pics too!! It's dreary and grey here for 6-8 months....more snow...

last year I decided to move my GT's so they could get taller without blocking my view. Cut them down to maybe a foot, not sure if they would would survive, but they ended up at least 6 ft this year, and i'm going to let them grow into an oak now.

Just gorgeous Jackie. Especially with the yellow irises and purple clematis. Stunning! I swear if you planted beans in your soil, a beanstalk would grow up to the clouds and the giants!!!

OK, here is the "after" picture. I almost didn't post it! You can see the support structure my DH built - it has been there for 15 years, but invisible inside of the rose. We took out 2 very old canes, all of the crossing canes, 1/2 of the height, and about 2/3rds of the width.

The messy bits are the clematis - I can't remember its name. I get irritated with that clematis thing where there are 3 completely different pruning methods, depending on what "group" they are in, so I just never prune any of them.

Jackie

What a sight! Thank you for sharing. I hey confused worth clematis pruning here, too. If you don't know what variety how are you supposed to know how much to Prune? I have a couple very aggressive ones here that very in my way so I cut them back almost completely every spring and they rebound nicely. Others are more well behaved so I just leave them. ..

Wow Jackie you deserve a bubble bath, a back rub and a good glass of wine after all that pruning! Good job!!!!

Your husband is so talented. I'm so glad you posted the photo, not only to see proper pruning, but also to see the support structure he built!

Well done! Both of you!

Thanks so much - I know intellectually that it will come back and be fine, and be in much better health, but I do feel guilty about whacking it so much - probably will not prune it again for another 5 years...

Jackie

Jacqueline, that photo of GT with the purple clematis just slays me. Gorgeous!!

What a impressive rose from day one when it arrived from David austin. My Gt is own root and took off this year to about 8 ft on a north facing wall.Great pics of your rose.Cant wait to see my gt that big. This is a da delivered healthy

I have no idea that Graham Thomas got that tall maybe it's something I should consider for the front of my house. We just pulled out the most hideous old arbovita plant that was so ugly

I already have five Julia Childs so maybe those with the Graham Thomas on the other side of the house would be kind of a nice transition.

David Austins are notorious for growing 2, 3 or 4 times their stated size in warmer climates, Kristina. Whether they'd do so in your neck of the woods, I don't know. The UK is mostly the equivalent of US Zone 8, so where you are they may stick more closely to their breeder's specs...

This is what David Austin's told me directly about their rose 'Graham Thomas', as it's grown over here, grafted, in case anyone is interested... I've only ever grown it as a shrub with pruning... but I've seen it as quite a stunner on walls about 10-15 foot..

''all of our roses are grafted on the same rootstock, called Rosa Laxa, a wild rose which produces strong root systems that do well in a variety of climates and soil types. The rootstock does not dictate whether a rose will be small, large, a bush or a climber, it merely produces roots to feed the needs of each variety.

Graham Thomas belongs to the English Rose group. They usually all start being sold as bush roses. Among them, we sometimes find that some can also be successfully grown as climbers.

So essentially, as long as it is a Graham Thomas rose, the mention "shrub" or "climber" does not really have any importance as you can simply train it in any way you like. It is purely down to the pruning of the rose that makes the difference. To produce a shrub, you prune them back by a third to a half each winter, to produce a climber just let them grow with minimal pruning.''

Jackie, this is a beautiful rose and your husband's structure is awesome. Is it copper tubing with concrete inside to handle the weight of GT? Thx, Nancylee

Nancy - the vertical tubes are 3/4 inch copper water pipes. The horizontal tubes are 1/2 inch copper water pipes - they are attached by soldering (with wire wrapped around the attachment point when that failed). They are not full of concrete, but there are about 18 inch long steel "3/4 inch form stakes" inside the bottoms of the vertical pipes (wrapped in electrical tape so that they do not form a battery with the copper). Then he put green steel garden stakes (which you can see in the pic) on the outside of the bottom of the vertical pipes, with a rubber liner between them and the copper pipes. The extra strengthening was added over the years as the weight of the rose, and the fact that the deer were yanking on the canes they could reach, made the structure get out of plumb. Hope this is helpful - I wrote what he said - he is a contractor, thank heavens, so I never have to think about any of this sort of stuff.

Jackie

Any updates? I have plans for mine!

Just beautiful and so also love the structure your hubs built. I hope mine grows huge in my arbor like yours has.

OK - the "pruned" pic above was in Jan of 2017. In the Spring of 2017 the rose and the clematis started to grow and bloom. I had not pruned the clematis much - just broken bits, because I am intimidated by the I, II, and III groups, can never remember who is in what group. So, I never prune them much. I just draped the clematis stuff all over the pruned rose. Ha! When the clematis bloomed it ATE the rose! So funny - the rose had grown lots of new canes & was trying to bloom, but the clematis just used its structure to grow on, and made zillions of blooms itself - I can't find a picture, but when you looked at the bush all you saw was 95% solid clematis blooms, with a few yellow roses peeking out. So, when I pruned it this winter, I just pruned the rose back about 1/3rd, and was careful to prune the clematis back about 80%. We will see what happens in the next couple of months...

Jackie

Some of the viticella clematis are incredibly vigorous. Many of them are purple. I would not be surprised if you had one of those.

I once had a rose smothered and actually killed by 'Polish Spirit' while my attention was distracted elsewhere.

Rosefolly