I grew Prairie Princess for many years and both the bloom and the growth habit sounds like it. A lot of roses take some time to firm up their canes and stand upright, but this one tended to grow with relatively narrow canes that needed staking up. I did with this one like with a lot of my tall roses where I just kept a permanent support around the plant. In my case, I used the 5 foot tall green wire fencing that comes in rolls. My system is to cut enough of that fencing to put around the canes at the base of the rose with plenty of room to grow outwards, then use earth stakes to fasten it into the ground. The fence basically disappears once the foliage comes in and the rose droops out over the top of the fencing.

PP gets quite tall (6 feet or more) and mine had a lot of basal canes, so it occupied way too much garden space unless you keep it supported upright. Even as it is, my fence circle had a good 2 foot diameter or more and it needed serious ground staples to stand upright. The wind would often knock it down as it got rather top heavy so I had to do some additional tie downs to keep it upright. It was every bit as hardy as you say but took years before it did much reblooming. The first flush was extensive but later flushes were less so even when mature.

If I were to grow it again, I'd probably give it a more secure vertical surface and treat it like a climber. I think it could be impressive spread out in a fan shape like other climbers and blooming from its laterals. That doesn't look like an option where you have it, but you could move it while young and the floppiness would be an advantage.

Just my two cents

Cynthia

Thank you, nippstress! This is very helpful indeed!!!

Is there any pruning or anything that I can do to promote more bushy growth instead, so it is less like a climber, I wonder? I can put a trellis behind it but that was not the look that I was going for! Hmmm..... any suggestion would be welcome!

Thank you again!

Ostrich, when I get octopus canes on roses I want to keep shrubby, I let those long canes flower then prune them right down to the same height as the rest of the shrub. I find if you keep doing this, most roses get the memo. There are some that never do though and I don’t know if your rose is one of them, but worth a try? Also give it a good hard annual prune in late winter/spring (or whenever you do that according to your climate) reducing it to about a third of it’s size.

Good advice from Nollie and I hope it works for you to manage it with pruning. I tended to prune it down by half or more during spring pruning just so I could get the support wrapped around it again, but I found it grew back to its preferred height by the time it bloomed. I have seen other people keep roses manageable by doing the midseason prune like Nollie describes. For instance, my Sunrise Sunset is one of my most robust climbers that covers an 8 foot arch even though it's a "2 foot tall groundcover rose". A friend of mine keeps hers shrub-like by pruning the long canes down past the other canes and keeping an eagle eye out for stray canes. It's a balance act between keeping it a modest size and not discouraging the blooming canes, but since this is a rose that has its strongest blooms in spring you could experiment with pruning next year without risking too much effect on the bloom.

Let us know how it works!

Cynthia

Thank you, Nollie and nippstress for your great advice! I will try to prune down my Prairie Princess early in spring in 2025, and see what happens! Thanks!!!

Could it be Prairie Joy?

L Clark, would Prairie Joy have a lighter pink colour please? This is more like coral pink??? I really have no idea but really appreciate your thoughts! :-) I am learning a lot here! Thanks!

Ouch! I did a search on Prairie Joy rose, and then found also Prairie Dawn.... now I am all confused! How do you tell the difference between all of these Prairie roses please???

Sometimes there are similar roses that have similar characteristics and you make your best guess from pictures and input if you can't remember the name (or it didn't come with one). LClark is right that Prairie Joy shares many of the characteristics of what you pictured and the advice about reining it in with pruning and/or fencing would apply. I have growth all three "Prairie" roses you mention and they're all tall roses that can get lanky and floppy.

Among the three, I'm relatively sure it's not Prairie Dawn. If you look at the photos on helpmefind roses, most of the pictures show a rose with a notable notch in the petals that your rose doesn't have. You can't always trust the color or petal count of any individual hmf picture, but when you see a pattern it can help. New roses can have different petal counts from mature roses, and the weather conditions and photography light can affect the color a lot.

Between Joy and Princess, what indicated "princess" to me initially was the curled petals in the front of the blooms, relatively dense petal count, and wavy edge to the petals. In most of the pictures on hmf, Prairie Joy has a point to the edges of the petals that your picture doesn't show. In my yard, Prairie Joy almost never rebloomed though it is reported to on hmf and probably would have in more sun. Princess didn't rebloom as profusely as spring but it put out some small flushes here and there.

In the long run, you pick a name that works for your rose and treat it accordingly. Fortunately all of these have similar habits and hardiness so it's a matter of picking a name you can live with that applies. I'd probably go with Prairie Princess, but I am poor at identifying roses in my own yard without labels and frequently mixed up Joy and Princess. Either can work so don't stress about it too much.

Cynthia

I have had Prairie Dawn and Prairie Joy and your blooms aren't as cupped as PJ or as saturated in color as PD to my eye.

Maybe it is PP.

Thank you, Cynthia and Sheila! Your answers are so informative - really appreciate your help!

I am going to wait until next year and then see how I may need to prune it (whether it be PP or PJ!) to keep its habit bushier :-) You are right, Cynthia, whatever it is, it is such a vigorous rose that is so disease resistant that I should just relax and enjoy!!! THANK YOU!

Ostrich, as with many but the hardiest of roses, I'm sure that after our northern winter, you'll need to do a good deal of pruning back of dead wood, would be nice to be surprised though!

You might be surprised by all three of these "Prairie" named roses, particularly Princess and Joy. I have had mine in the virtual zone 4 part of my yard for many years without a hint of dieback. In a true zone 3-4 there might be some dieback but I expect these would have good winter survival as they're bred for it, like the Canadian series.

Cynthia

'Prairie Joy' had been reliable for me, yes some years with less winterkill than others. Though, climate change isn't necessarily making the winters of this region any milder, in fact more extreme it would appear. Last winter, the city of Edmonton experienced a blast of the absolute most bitter cold in something like 40 years, -45 C / -49 F in some outlaying districts and with scant snow cover to boot. Only the hardiest roses have maintained a good deal of live wood, the rest taken almost to the ground two winters in a row. :(

Hi everyone! I just wanted to report back on how this rose is doing!

With our very cool spring and extremely wet summer, this rose came back very slowly from its dormancy. Rather than shooting up very tall and lanky canes as it did in previous years, it has grown to about 2X2 feet at most. It started to bloom a few weeks ago but the whole plant remains rather small and not that full of blooms.

The leaves are extremely healthy with a lovely shiny light green which I love. Hoewever the blooms really flop all over the place as the stalks are rather weak.

Am I just being too impatient as this was planted just over 2 years ago? Or should it have done better and I should just replace it with something more vigorous and with more flowers?

I think the rose is a bit depressed that you don't leave it be and let it have it's natural shape. In very cold climates I would let it grow the way it wants and keep all it's strength. I have had both PJ and PD and left them be.

I agree, Sheila. Diane

Oh OK! Thank you, Sheila and Diane. I tried to let it be but it threw out several long, lanky canes that would fall over and the whole thing looked awful.... maybe it just is not meant to be for my yard!!!