I can't answer your question about its blooming this year though I would expect that it might be another year before it blooms.
If you were a professional nurseryman wanting to sell your wares to the public, you would prune it so that it would develop more canes, that making the plant more saleable. That said, the first time I started roses from cuttings, it was impossible for me to cut the roses back as I knew I should because I desparately wanted to see the blooms. However, my propagation is entirely outside, and yours indoors. I hope someone else can offer more sage advice.
Steve.

Whenever I had fairly large roses under lights, they very much grew into the lights, and not around them. Those canes were, to put it mildly, rather bizarrely bent, and I often cut them off when the rose finally went outside. However, those were almost all rebloomers. Once bloomers seemed to often strongly resent being forced to grow during the winter, and after being yelled at quite loudly by several, I started keeping them in the garage, even the first winter. We were never successful in rooting Albas, though, so I don't know if they might react differently.

So one question, is exactly how is the bush shaped? Are there one or two very long canes that can easily be shortened? If so, I'd do that. If the whole thing is that tall, can you raise the lights? Can you throw it into a place that might go below freezing, but not killer cold to give it some dormancy?

My garage roses have started to break dormancy, and I'm going to have to start getting them outside fairly soon. At this point in time, you may have as few as a couple of weeks before outside is possible with a watch on the weather forecast for cold nights.

LAST FROST MEANS NOTHING TO ROSES!!!

hi Mad Gallica and Elks

Thanks for your replies.

The rose is now one long shoot...there are some small branches but they are lower down. It seems to be one branch that growing tall.

Just wondering...can I put this plant in the garage? My garage is below freezing...I can t raise the lights anymore.

I guess I ll have to introduce it gradually? Sort of like hardening off?

Plus when would you normally put the roses out? This is my first year with roses...I thought they would go out when the other plants do..

Thanks

s

If it's going into an attached garage, just throw it out there. You'll find elaborate instructions for getting plants ready to change circumstances, but I've never had anything bothered by moving that isn't a ficus. Plants go in, out, into below freezing temperatures, into hot, dry houses - they don't care. Now the coldest my garage ever gets, is low 20's F. And that's with -20°F and serious wind chill. Below freezing is relatively normal, but it has a hard time getting much colder than that.

The roses in the garage have started to leaf out. I need to start watching them, and get them outside fairly soon. My current problem is that there isn't anywhere to put them that isn't covered with snow and isn't in the direct path of cars. I have to at least find the back walk before they can come out. During the spring, they do a fair amount of moving in and out depending on the weather. Our current forecast is for above freezing temperature until Wednesday night, so they could definitely go out for a couple of days. If the forecast low is below around 28°F, or I have reason to believe it is going to get colder than that, they have to get moved back in for the night. If a cold spell comes, and they have to spend a couple of days inside, they just have to.

The strange thing, at least IMHO, is that while they start growing so much earlier than the in the ground roses, they don't tend to start blooming that much earlier. Mutabilis has a very hard time beating R. hugonis, and it should be working with a several week head start.

There is a definite learning curve with this.