What a beautiful rose! And a beautiful scene! I think it has grown very well for you in three years.

I've never grown that variety so don't know its growth habits, but I would just shape it to whatever shape I could see in my mind's eye; as in -- do I want it to follow the trellis or is it okay if it branches out all over?

You're right in that roses are very forgiving, but I will say it takes a certain amount of nerve to take off whole long canes that are heading off in a direction not wanted, but I've never regretted removing them in shaping a rose. However, to get expert advice you could pose your question on the GW Rose forum. You'll get lots of responses.

Anyway, I would shorten the canes going at right angles. Some roses will produce a lot of little blooming branches on the shortened part and some will try to grow another long cane. In that case when pruning I'd take off the cane back to the main cane. But you won't know until you see how it responds.

It looks like you've got plenty of canes tied to the structure so I'd say just shape the wild canes to how you want it to look and see what happens. It won't set it back. The roots that were supporting the cut off cane will support more shapely new growth

Maybe you've already looked at the photos on the link below, but if not seeing them might give you some idea of this rose's growth habit.

Here is a link that might be useful: Dublin Bay rose on HelpMeFind. It's very popular!

I just planted Dublin Bay early last year, and also love the blooms, plus it is healthy and disease free so far. If you google "prune Zepherine Drouhine" on Google, it should bring up Hartwood Roses Blog, she has good information on pruning. In this case she is also attaching to a trellis, I would think similar to what you're doing.

Good luck!

I have no information about pruning your rose but had to comment on your garden. What a beautiful and peaceful setting! That trellis is so pretty, it's almost a shame that the rose will obscure it :-)

Thanks for all your responses!

Roselee- I thought about posting to the Rose Forum, but thought I would try here first. From what I can tell this rose is grown in a wide range of zones, but is treated differently in places where it gets harder freezes? Plus I don't "know" any of those folks :-) But will probably cross post.

Ogrose - thanks for the links - I'll check them out. Yes it has been a great rose for me. Anything I bought from ARE has been tough if I put it in the right place. I wish it had a little more smell, but the flowers make up for it.

Pkponder - thank you- it is very peaceful out here. I laughed when I read that the rose obscures the view. I kind of have the opposite problem that most people have - there's so much space out here how do you design a garden (or gardens) that make any kind of impact. I hope the trellis will draw the eye out to the view in the pastures. But still be an entry to my backyard. I don't know if that makes sense- I'm still struggling with an overall vision for the property.

Thanks again everyone for the info - Lisa

I post on the roses forum and antique roses;they are a friendly bunch and there are some very knowledgeable rose people.

One problem - it's very addicting as I can attest to!

Post your picture, and bet you will get a lot of replies.