Neal ...
There are some good Austin Ross. I don't know how well they grow own root, so looking for grafted makes sense.
Margy NY reminded me of something last night that is another variable that can play into the larger growth of the Kordes roses from Palentine. A while back she called NewFlora, Kordes representative in the US, and found out that all of the roses sold by Kordes since 2002 were tested own root. That tells me they were bred and tested to perform well own root vs the standard procedure used in the US for decades where everything was tested budded.
As Zuzu has pointed out, when an own root plant is grafted to a more vigorous root stock, the roses will be more vigorous and larger than they were own root. Of course, there are always exceptions ... I think she mentioned 'Queen Elizabeth' as an example.
Connecting the dots ... when Palentine grafts a rose that grows well own root, it gives the plant more resources with a stronger root stock, most likely, it will grow larger and more vigorously. Another variable. I think Margie may be onto something.
For a free standing rose, you might try the method of support the Sacramento Historical Cemetery Rose Garden volunteers have used to support roses with the growth habit you describe. They use a "corral" built under and around the rose to lift the canes up so that they are not flopping all over the ground. I think their initial experiment was to build the structure using wood, and when they found it worked, they have replaced the wooden corrals with steel structures. This allows the rose to grow as large as it wants to grow and these roses seem to be more floriferous than if they pruned it down to the size needed to keep the paths clear in the cemetery. The canes of the rose drape down and cover the support, so you don't even see it.
I haven't been down to Sacramento in years and haven't actually seen the roses treated this way and don't know if they do any kind of special pruning to clean up the roses. I can contact someone who volunteers at the garden for more information or you can experiment on your own. I think this will will work better than a trellis in that it provides support all the way around the rose.
Just more to think about.
Smiles,
Lyn
