The obelisk goes next to the rose, hopefully securely in the ground. Then you *gently* manoever the canes close enough to the obelisk to be tied to it. At this point, that may be as far as a foot away.

Thank you. I just thought that the old canes might be too thick and stiff to wrap around an obelisk. Also, there are lateral canes that are as large as the main canes. Would I need to trim them off?

I would not trim old canes off, but rather guide new canes to your obelisk. Eventually you can trim old canes off when they have given all they can.

Thank you. If I keep the old canes, should I try to remove any branches or lateral canes, so it's one straight cane?

I would leave all the leaves to keep feeding your plant so it can grow new basals that you train to the obelisk. I think it will look very nice as it is transforming to a climber.

So, I should leave the old canes as they are, and then when a new basal starts to grow, then I would train that to the support?

That is what I would do because the old leaves feed the plant and help it make new growth which you can train.

That makes sense. thank you. Except the canes I have now are very old and I seldom get any new ones. Would it help to remove one or two older canes to promote new basal shoots?

I probably would...but I am an uncaring maniac with a chainsaw. Have, in some cases, repeatedly, savaged the unruly beasts down to a stub, and back they come, with huge vigor. Think this is called rejuvenative pruning - ! call it exasperation (rage).

You could remove a couple canes. I can understand Suzy too.

If the roses is young it is more important to not not prune too much.

The rose is at least 20 years old, so it would probably be okay if it lost a cane.

I have MIP. It was attached to the wall with a trellis system that failed, so I bought one of those heavy duty systems that attaches to the stucco. But my rose was huge and all over the place by then and I wasn’t able to work at the new system without getting ripped to pieces. So I cut it back to about 5 canes, bundled and tied them to the side and then re- attached them after the trellis system was finished. It has responded by putting out more basal canes than I want, so I’m culling any that are not placed well for my purposes. Mine is only 3 or 4 years old and easily has a spread of 20 feet when fanned in both directions.

OMG! That's impressive. Mine does not grow like that at all. It's much smaller and slow growing. It's an own-root plant, in partial shade in zone 6. Do post a picture!

That's wonderful! that looks like the happiest rose ever. Whatever you are doing it's working!