That looks like an incredible amount of work, not to mention lots of debris to somehow clear away. The result looks very elegant and will surely give 'Apple Blossom' a new lease on life. I wonder if my Purple Skyliner will require similar treatment, although I suspect it may not get it, and I doubt that I (or actually my gardener) could achieve a similar stellar effect. I'll look forward to seeing the result next spring.

I would just cut off dead branches when they appear. RHS advice might have stemmed from historical gardens having a full staff. I doubt Anne Belovich was doing all of that here in the US of A.

Sheila - I did think of that, but it was such a mess that I thought it did need some hard pruning (NOT going to get it at 12 month intervals, of course!). We actually had to go around to my neighbor's driveway to get at parts of it. Also, this way my DH was happy to help and follow the RHS directions without questioning them. I will keep a better eye on it in the future, and will cut off troublesome bits as I notice them.

Ingrid - thank you for the nice comments. I don't think your PS has been neglected as my AB wa for a long time. Probably you can get your gardener to follow Sheila's advice as you go along.

Jackie

Jackie, I'm sure your plant will look lovely, but the wild look could look great at Ingrid's minus all the work.

I still can't get over the decimation at the Sacramento City Cemetery rose garden.

Of course the "wild look" is my favorite, and I am sure it will be great for Ingrid. I was more concerned that my bush was going to die or something - the areas with dead leaves showed up overnight, and when we looked at the irrigation there was nothing wrong with it. When we pruned it there was a lot of dead wood. Next time I will just try to take that out.

Jackie

I had to do my neglected ramblers last year, Jacqueline. I was a bit traumatised at the time because it was over a decade of really unruly growth - whole areas of the allotment were impassable. A stabby, Sleeping Beauty briar patch, further enhanced by years of the worst weeds ever,. Dogs and small children could have disappeared, trapped in the thorny terror. There was no hope of any sort of strategical planning.: my son and I used chainsaws and hedgetrimmers instead of loppers, pullsaws and secateurs. We literally hacked everything back to 2 feet from the ground. Not just Rambling Rector, moyesii, helenae, Pleine de Grace and Darlows, but Jacques Cartier, Leontine Gervaise, Crep,nutkana...everything. It was bloody. and the arisings filled the entire vegetable garden

Not a single rose missed a beat - all sprang back with renewed vigour. (unlike the coronilla, various euphorbias, cistus, which turned up their toes). I have been working up to an even bigger and more terrifying job though, as many of the roses have been throwing rootstock...and this is a battle I am not winning. So it is probably going to be another chainsaw winter (I still haven't managed to deal with last year's arisings) but at least I won't feel anxious and guilty at the indiscriminate hacking.

Wow - after dealing with one rambler, I can hardly imagine dealing with several at once. "Stabby" is a good word - the thorns on ours were not huge, but curved and very very sharp, and of course the canes are flexible and love to whip around. They kept grabbing my hat off of my head, and even though I was wearing extra heavy gardening denim, they ripped holes in it. After some consideration, I am not surprised that your roses rebounded quickly - that is not something I am worried about.

Rootstock is another matter - every single rose in my garden is on its own roots, except perhaps for some ancient ones planted by my DH's ancestors. I really think all of those have gone own root by now, as I have not seen a root sucker coming up anywhere for decades. I won't plant a rose unless I can get it own root, and anyway most of the roses I plant are cuttings I rooted myself. Life is way too short to keep having to deal with (here anyway) zillions of Dr. Huey plants, which in our climate tend to be way more energetic than the scions. I do remember some places where the scion was gone, it took us 2-3 tries to dig up Dr. Huey until it stopped coming up again.

Of course, when an emerging rootstock turned out NOT to be Dr. Huey, I aways waited for it to bloom to see if I liked it - Here is my favorite, 'de la Grifferaie (1845) - the rose tree it killed was yellow, and boring, so I was fascinated when dlG came up, a mystery to me, but I could tell by the leaves it was something special. So much that I waited through 4 Springs with no blooms, until it did this on the Fifth one, and continues to do that every Spring ever since. Fabulous strong fragrance, too, and no disease whatever.

Jackie

Please excuse my tangent... @Sheila z8a Rogue Valley OR Would you please bring me up to speed on the "decimation at the Sacramento City Cemetery rose garden"?

A city council took over from volunteers at the Cemetery and hired a hack with a grudge to chop all the climbers and ramblers down. They seem to be trying to kill the garden. The volunteers were prohibited from helping the plants.

If you google the topic you will find threads on this topic.

It was a real tragedy - they claimed that roses were not historic, and not supposed to be there, even though in the 19th century it was the custom for people to plant roses and other plants on graves, and there are photos documenting that at the Sacramento City Cemetery. Bureaucrats exist everywhere, and benign is as good as they get - these were vicious and nasty.

Jackie