Hi Gabi,
I don't know what to say about pruning to encourage basal shoots -- I'm interested to know if others have a strategy for that.

As for the roses with delicate canes, I would not prune those at all except to remove dead wood. Fair Bianca is not a very vigorous rose. The more live material you leave, the more the rose can engage in photosynthesis and the more energy it will have to (hopefully) produce new growth. Some roses are strong, quick growers that respond well to tough love, but others only build size and strength over time.

She was talking mostly about younger roses, but these 2 comments from Chris, from a few tears ago, may be useful:

chris2486

4 years ago

This goes to the young plant problem. K&M grafts on fortuniana but sells very young plants. The problem here is that the plant has not developed low branching giving the shrub shape and a balanced look. To correct cut the plant back to about 8' - even the thick cane. Use some compost or bark and mound it around the the plant 6" up the canes. The mulch creates humidity which makes for a softer cane which lets buds break easier. Keep well fertilized and water and after 3 weeks there should be some bud development. Mulch can be pushed back from cane. When the buds turn into canes about 8 inches long pinch off the top 2 inches of these canes . This will encourage more branches. This should make a nicely shaped plant. If it is still uneven then you can pinch more growth tips to encourage more side branching.

Do not be frightened of pinching canes it does not really do harm and will not kill a rose.

An image of Plum Perfect on my patio - 3-yr old own root

chris2486

4 years ago

Moses - you remind me why I don't write on forums. Yes roses have canes but I think this is a website for a wide variety of skill levels with roses and if we start talking about basal and laterals we will loose the people I am trying to reach - the less experienced.

I work in the commercial side of rose production. We start cutting back own root roses just after the roots emerge and while they are sitting in small cell packs we cut them at least two times. After we step them up into band pots we cut them 2 more times. This is before they ever get planted and before these plants are 6 months old. They leave the greenhouse looking like a bushy mound of rose leaves and when they go into the ground we may do a few more cuts to keep the form. Some varieties (especially shrubs) need less of this than say HTs which often need to be encouraged to make more breaks.

The reason we do this is to promote branching (there I go again). We want a vigorous, well-shaped bush and this is how you do it. We often call these soft pinches since we are doing it often enough we are just taking the growth tip off the plant.

I am sorry but this does not weaken roses. What we know is that just after a cut there is a small amount of root die back and then with in a few days a surge of both root growth and new top growth from buds below the cut. I think it invigorates the plant and encourage growth - in the right places. We have produced a lot of roses using this system and it is used universally by commercial producers.

Octopus arms and thin tall plants with few canes come from not doing this in a timely manner. Try it maybe you will shovel prune less roses.

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How old is MB? If it's also only one year old it may need more time to establish before sending up new canes.

There are many things that are "supposed" to encourage new basal breaks. However, there is no proof that any of them work. Unfortunately whether a rose sends up new canes is entirely up to the rose! And some types of roses just don't send up a lot of canes. Morden Blush is a smaller size shrub rose (4 ft tall X 2 ft wide) and may not send up a lot of cane growth.

If you just planted those two Austin's last year I wouldn't prune anything off (except dead wood) yet. Most roses take 3 to 5 years to reach maturity. Until then just let them grow and get some size. You will lose enough to winter kill anyway in your zone. Don't take more than you have to.

I'm not familiar with Fair Bianca but I have had Queen of Sweden for 4 years and she is still only 3 ft tall with very slender canes. I know that a lot of the DA roses like to fountain and therefore have those thin pliable canes. It's normal. From your photos those all look like very healthy green canes. I'd say just let them grow and enjoy them!

Thank you very much for your advices.

The Morden Blush is 3 or 4 years old. I might try what Chris2486 is describing, thank you Rifis. Sometimes I search the old post on the forum, but then again I don't know all the right terms in english to do it effectively.

KS, Seil, you are right. I will be patient with those roses, and quite frankly they really emerged fairly healthy from this winter. I can't wait for them to flower, they have the most exquisite smells!