How do I prune a mystery rose bush?

Question

Last year I rescued a rose bush from a construction site. I put it in my garden in a sunny spot, gave it rose food & have waited to see what happened. What happened is I got 2 red blooms that opened out kinda flat. Since then the branches are just growing - no more flowers. I know there are different types of roses but I have no idea what this one is. A friend cut it back this spring, but the branches just grew back. Right now they are around 6 feet long. Can anyone advise on pruning when you are not sure what kind of rose you have? Is it possible that this is a trailing rose and needs a trellis?

Answer 1

It could be a mounding rose ( difficult to say without a picture ).  I had a rosebush sprout in my front yard.  I thought it needed trellising and I tried that but it kept pulling the trellis over.  I learned it is a mounding rose.  Now I just let it do its' thing.  It is a monster and the canes are very often 6 feet long, as you mentioned.  My blooms are small, white and almost look like apple blossoms.   I prune it back to the ground every couple of years right after Halloween ( I am in the U.S. on the east coast ).

Answer 2

You may have an understock rose called Dr. Huey.  It's the root stock of many modern roses.  It is hardy in many climates and thus a good choice for root stock.  It is a vigorous climber with fair to poor flowers;  red rose of not that many petals, kinda flat as you said.  Flowers just once a season.  

To get your flower id'ed, most rose shows have a category for entry "name this rose."  It's not a competition class, but you enter your rose and rose experts try to ID it for you.  Your problem will be having a bloom when there's a rose show in your area.  

Answer 3

it sounds like you may have a climbing rose

if it is a climber you wont need to cut it back until early spring   then you only need to clip the dead or crossed branches

you can dead head if you like

if you want to find out what kind of rose it is  you might try this web addy    

Answer 4

It is more than possible that you need a trellis to tie your rose to it sounds like you have a vine instead of a bush. The wild roses that grows in our area will climb as high as you will let them My neighbor has a white wild rose that he allowed to grow and it is at least 20ft tall.

You can grow it on a trellis or keep it cut back. Of course you may have a bush, time will tell.

It sounds like your needs fertilizer for roses, to get more blooms and healthy growth 10-10-10 is good for roses.. A couple of other things you can do is use some used coffee grounds, or/and you can dispose of banana peels under your rose, just gently work it into the ground. both of these give the rose nourishment.

I hope these links will be helpful for you.

http://images.search.yahoo.com/images/vi...

http://gardening.about.com/od/rose1/a/Ro...

http://www.weekendgardener.net/how-to/pr...

http://www.chiff.com/a/roses-garden-tips...

http://www.rosefile.com/RosePages/rcare....