Have you tried alfalfa? I use that every spring and my roses love it. I can’t guarantee your roses will break more canes, but many claim it helps. It’s worth a try.

I have used a mixture of organic fert and alfalfa. Will keep plying those roots and hope for the best.

I'm wondering if what you need is time. They're own-root, so they may just need another couple-few years to send up new canes from underground. I have own-root rugosas and this is what I have noticed with those. So just be patient, I guess. Top-pruning probably won't have an effect on new cane development from underground. Branching, yes, but not canes from underground.

Take bold decisive action.

2 inches from the ground.

Do not equivocate.

I'm leaning towards decisive action :o)

Timing will be key. The phenological idicator -just as forsythia in your neighborhood first begin to bloom- might be it. With the goal of maximizing uptake of stored nutrients (from above) by the roots, before you act. Do some research; I’m no expert.

Patience, grasshopper.

Absolutely do not prune them back hard. Understand that a grafted rose has usually been growing in the fields for 2 years, and the rootstock has been there for at least 3. The rootstock has also been chosen for its vigor.

If you really can't bear to wait 5 years, then make a point of only growing grafted roses.

Lots of robust basal canes coming from a vigorous rosebush is every rosarian's dream/goal.

Other than basic, good rose care...following the standard list of requirements as best as possible is about all that we can do.

Some varieties are generous basal cane growers, others are stingy. It's in their genes.

One thing that allows a rosebush to produce the most basal canes its genes are programmed to produce is to give it lots of elbow room in the garden. Crowding will reduce fresh, numerous basal cane production more than anything else.

Moses.

Well I've gotten every bit of contradictory advice one could imagine, I may as well have consulted the magic 8 ball. :0)

Even when searching the web I read the same mix of advice. Prune back hard, don't prune, be patient, alfalfa. I've been using alfalfa, not as consistently as I could, so will get that into a more regular process. I may treat each of these roses different and see what happens.

Thanks to everyone for your thoughts.

"I may treat each of these roses different and see what happens."

That's often the best approach -- we learn by experimentation.

a picture might help

patietnce is sensible up to a point, I negelct young plants often (too little time to water much), so often they make a leap in y 3 or 4

what kind of soil do you have, sandy or loamy/ heavy

are you sure that there is no soil problem like compaction or some such

Pruning: if there is older, thin-ish wood on those roses, I would remove those older branches/twiggs especially flower buds

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I had a rambler (grafted), throwing out one scraggely cane in y3,

exploding with the late rain in September in y4, adding about 5 or 6 vigorous canes in that season...

feeding: yes, and makes sure it has enough water to reach those nutrients

timing: not sure how hard your frosts are, in our region (mild vinyard country/climate) I figured out that for my garden it would be far too late to wait for Forsythia to flower (very old recommendation around here as well...) , because most roses have 2-4 inches new growth by then, which would be a shame to waste

we do sometimes get late, light frost but I never had serious damage on my roses

do take pictures and notes when you start the next season please...

We are in the Pacific Northwest, up against the foothills where it's a bit colder than by the water. Presidents day is a common marker for when to prune roses here. Soil is a good quality top soil, good drainage and a fair amount of organic matter. Begin feeding them around early March and then every 8 weeks or so after that, stopping in August. I am a fairly light pruner in general, going after dead/diseased and crossing branches. Not really experienced enough to know more than that. We have around 20 different roses that we've been growing, some for 5 or 6 years +, and other new in the last few years and a few more purchased late in the season that are being overwintered in their pots in the greenhouse.

This will be year 4 for the roses in question. Just verified that with some photos. That kind of speaks to continuing to feed, light pruning and patience.