First I kind of cut the canes a scraggly 5 feet

then wanting more neatness I cut them all between 3 and 4 feet

So many laterals growing out of the canes. What to do with these? Now there are side shoots emerging from the laterals

front

back

so many canes new and old

I think it looks great. All you need is a pillar of some sort to tie the rose to so it won't flop over any more when it blooms. Mine is a leaner against a shrub. You could use a fence post driver to place a steel support next to the rose or a rebar pole.

Thank you for the visual. No help here, but I think I want this ros! ;0

I was wanting to trim mine back by a third. If you do a old thread search, olga, who used to post here goes into detail on pruning them. My dh said it was to beautiful to cut. So what I'm doing is taking some rebar and making a tripod, and putting the rear long canes on it, that are flexible, and leaving a few to arch out front and see how that does. Good luck with yours!

Sheila, that picture of Ispahan and your garden is the perfect dreamscape for my heart. I feel transported to some renaissance Tuscan estate. The blue skies, the plantings and the rose tumbling opulently in the center. I can just breath it in. Congratulations for creating something so beautiful and sharing with me (us). I am now going to go ahead and make a support as you describe in my quest to make my backyard beautiful and fragrant. :) And do you ever prune your Ispahan or just let it be?

vapor: when I planted this rose I had no idea it gets so big. I didnt pay attention to such details. Only if there was super fragrance. If I knew I would have at least planted it further back. If you have a place for it you will love the tower of blooms and being enveloped with fragrance. I would recommend it.

Alana: If you ever get to it I would love to see how you support your Ispahan. Same for me. (I am so glad I kept mine).

Is it very thorny?That would help with placement. Does it have a long bloom period?

Thank you Katy. I have not pruned my Ispahan. The plants mostly do whatever they want here.

vapor: it does have some thorns but they are small and not menacing at all. Mine gets some shade and mostly afternoon sun and yet blooms profusely For me it blooms for at least 6 weeks. It puts on many many buds and they do not bloom all at once so you see flowers over a long time. But during the blooming period there are huge number of flowers at any given time. Even after 6 weeks there are a few buds left and you will see some more roses. And I seem to remember that even when the plant was young there was a long period of bloom and that it grew big very quickly. I mentioned this else where I had never watered it, fertilized it or pruned it; just did not know better at the time. Only beginning to take care of it now. Plus no BS or other fungal diseases whatsoever. Its a great rose.

Be careful not to overdo things. An established once bloomer should not need watering in a humid climate, and should be fertilized once a year, at most. Pruning to remove old/dead wood is the only regular maintenance they need.

Understand that trying to keep this rose in bounds in that location is going to be a continual battle. Fairly heavy pruning, 4 times a year will keep it upright and a reasonable size. Otherwise, I'd seriously consider moving it somewhere you have space for a 6 x 6 ft shrub. Even that size will take some pruning to attain, but only twice a year.

Thank you gallica. Very good to know!