My MM rose is about 5-6 years old and didn't do well last summer. I live in Zone 6b (Dutchess County NY) and a few years ago cut back too much. Last year clusters of small RED roses appeared and only 1 or 2 of the beautiful apricot color. How far back should I cut the roots when spring comes? Will the apricot color return or did I ruin it by cutting back too much? Jean (admin removed email).

Thank you, Johannian for the tip to post here!

It sounds like your bush is grafted and the root stock is sending out suckers, thus the red blooms. You'll need to remove any branches that the red blooms are appearing on as they are not your Marilyn Monroe Rose at all and will never display those apricot blooms. If allowed to continue, the red root stock could overtake the grafted rose.

Do you mean how far back to cut the branches? You wrote roots.

And yes, the red blooms are most likely the commonly used graft Rose (Rosa 'Dr. Huey')
Those stems (suckers) originate from below the graft and you need to preferable snap those off at the base, just cutting the branches won't do it. "Suckers are vigorous canes growing from the rootstock below the graft union on grafted roses. Cut these off to the main stem, even if you have to dig away some soil to get to them.
Pruning Roses