Please disregard this post which I meant to place in the regular forum.

Tree roots give roses a lot of competition for nutriants and water so it is best to plant the rose three feet away from the base of the tree. Slope the rose in the planting hole on an angle towards the tree trunk, then tie it onto a stake that is attatched to the tree. When it has grown up the stake and can be tied to the tree then remove the stake.

David Austin himself advises to encourage a strong bush by cutting out all frail growth leaving only the studiest canes.Then prune them as to their growth pattern. Upright ones prune back by one half, spreading, arching and bushy shapes by one third. However if they are grown for display in a rose bed on their own then prune as for a Hybrid Tea right down to eight inches from the ground.

You root a big long cane of rootstock then graft a rose bud on. Rooting a big cane is not easy especially if you do softwood rooting in Spring or Summer. You get better chance by hardwood rooting in Autumn. The first thing is to find a big long rootstock cane of Dr Huey or Multiflora ... to start with. If it's autumn rooting over Winter, just stick it down and forget about it. Next year they will grow. If you do Spring rooting of softwood young canes, you need to be very careful. here is how I do it at home and get near 100% sucess rate for Dr Huey and Multiflora - Take a 2ltr plastic milk bottle, punch holes at the bottom and pour in a mix of sand and peat. Soak it in water the first time. - Cut long canes, keep about 10 sets of leaves up the top, shear the bottom two nodes and apply rooting hormone - Insert about 10 canes in each bottle! No worry! use ties to hold them in a bunch, fan the top out to help the leaves to get light. - Lay the canes low about 1 foot off the ground and mist the top leaves or spray them by automatic timer every 2-3 hours for 4 weeks Ok, they would have lost all leaves after 4 weeks. Stand the canes up right in part shade. Pot them out when you see a lot of roots through the clear plastic of the milk bottle. Then you must master the art of budding or ship budding or grafting to get the rose buds on. I would suggest chip budding as it can be done most times of the year. -Dmaivn