First thing is to check and make sure that you don't have multiflora rootstocks sending up a cane.

Do the leaves look like the leaves you know are right for the plant?

Thanks, Ann. Fortunately, they are not multiflora canes. The leaves and thorns are the same as the grafted plants. For Red Riding Hood, those two canes also came with flowers so I know for certain they are not multiflora taking over. Also, I have a lot of multiflora here, and my impression is that their canes are not that as stiff as these flagpole canes. Nor are they infected with RRD.

I had a similar experience with Lion's Fairy Tale that I mistakenly put at the front of the bed thinking it would be 3-4 feet at most. Like yours, this one sent out 6-8 feet canes that bloomed at the ends, and I'm way too lazy to move roses unless I really have to. In that case, I waited a year or two until I was sure the rose was well-established then whacked it off mercilessly at around 2.5 feet all around. It sent off these lovely well-branched canes from that point that still would rather be tall but can be kept to 4-5 feet with deep deadheading (pruning each spent branch back to around 2.5 feet after blooming). Now I have a bushy rose that blooms from 4.5 feet all the way down the cane to the shorter branches I prune more heavily, and it works OK at the front of the bed now that the bushes behind are more substantial.

I have Golden Fairy Tale and Red Riding Hood too, and they both want to do the exact same thing. Golden Fairy Tale can get taller where I have it, so I don't prune it as much, but I'm sure I'll have to do the same treatment to Red Riding Hood in a year or so. For now, I let the canes droop horizontally along the ground for RRH now, and I'll prune it back to let it bush up in the spring.

It's your choice to move them or prune them back like this, but they're not a naturally short bush in the way something like Pretty Jessica or Sharifa Asma is. If you really want to keep them below 4 feet it'll take a lot of training, and you're liable to prune out some bloom cycles.

Cynthia

This is like many of the Austin roses that respond to the heat and strong sunlight of North American summers by growing much more vigorously than they do in northern Europe. Most of the Fairy Tales are vigorous shrubs for us rather than the floribundas they apparently are in Kordes test gardens.

Kate describes how to deal with vigorous shrubs--keep cutting them back but preserve the branchings that result from pruning so you get more and more stems over time. Eventually the plant will produce fewer of the rogue broomstick canes. It takes a few seasons to beat these shrubs into line.

Lacking direct experience with a particular variety, it looks like the Fairy Tales should be spaced 4'-5' in zones 6-8. Does anybody have one that stays small?

Thank you, Cythia, Michael and Diane! I now know what I should do. I still have one spot in the back of my bed that I can move Golden to next spring. For Red Riding Hood, it will be heavy pruning next spring.

I moved a Pomponella and had to cut it back when I did. It bloomed fine after cutting back so thats what I do now. As Michealg said, I try to save as much branching wood as I can. I am letting my Lion's rose get large. He is doing very well but as everyone says, he throws out long angled canes. I have a Larissa in a 15 gallon can that is staying smaller ( maybe the pot is dwarfing it? ) It's a good bloomer but I don't get the pretty darker centered flowers- they are all light pink all over. I really wanted the color contrast and I think its too warm here for it to happen. I'll probably give Larissa away.

Glad the collective advice helped, farmer duck - at the least, you know you're not alone!

Michael, you'd asked about a Fairy Tale rose that actually stays short. For me, so far (in its second year), Kosmos Fairy Tale has stayed around 3 feet and it's in prime sun in at least one location. Elegant Fairy Tale has stayed 3-4 feet so far in partial shade, but the jury's still out. Floral Fairy Tale took a while to get up to the kind of leggy height the others are showing, but it doesn't look to be actually short.

Just my two cents. There are other Kordes roses that do stay short, but for the most part, don't expect it of the fairy tale series.
Cynthia

Farmer Duck, you and I have been having the same thoughts!
I'm glad to see this advice on pruning. But I still don't understand how to prune 12 ft canes to get a branching bush...can anyone really dumb it down for me?
My canes on Kosmos and Golden Fairy Tale are 15 feet long and very dangerous! Thick and stiff, just as you described. I tried to drape them a bit to get some laterals but thus far, nothing. Both of mine were bare root on MF this spring.
I have no idea how to prune this rose but I'm definitely going to have to move it.
It's good to know that Kordes roses are larger than estimated.
I find the same of Geschwind roses. They are HUGE. It's busting out the laterals and thanks to MichaelG I'm making sublaterals too. I cannot wait to see it bloom.
Also my Fairy Tale roses have only put out a few blooms each.
Susan

Caramel FT and Floral FT have very different growing patterns for me. Caramel wants to be a small climber. I just let it arch over for the first flush (it would do well by being pegged), and cut it back a lot after the flush was over. It came back nicely, rebloomed well. Floral has stayed relatively small (3') with a good shape. Caramel blooms better for me than Floral.

Caramel is so dang STIFF and THICK. Im curious if it is growing at the expense of flowering as I didn't have hardly any blooms this year....
Thanks!
Susan

Susan, whack the rogue canes back to 3". You can let them bloom first or not. Then the cane makes 2 or 3 laterals; cut these back to 2 or 3 leaves each and you get more branches. Etc.

Or, if the canes are flexible and 4-7' long, bend the cane in a hoop and tie it to its own base ("self-pegging"). It will make 3 or 4 laterals at the top of the arch. You can cut off the outer/downward section later if you want.

Or, something that works with some varieties not others is to pinch out the growth tips of strong basals when they are about 14" long. Be sure you get the fleshy growth tip, not just leaves. Some roses will branch in response, others will make just one shoot and keep going up.

Most shrub roses have an awkward adolescence. You have to be patient and work with them for a few years, just as you know your daughter won't be 13 forever.

What Michael said. All I'd add is that you want to whack the cane back lower than what you want it to end up being, since the rose will usually sprout more than one cane out from the cut place - that's where the branching comes from. So if you want to keep the rose around 4 feet, cut lower than 3 feet so you have room for it to grow up and branch, then keep trimming those later branches like Michael says.

If you want to keep any of these roses below 4-5 feet, I don't think even this method would work, and you'd need to move them somewhere where they can grow.

Cynthia

It seems like there's a size descripancy with the fairy tale collection roses. The ones that grow to be very tall,are they grafted or own root? It seems that it only happens with certain varieties. I like the caramella or florals,and in 6b nj I want to plant 2 in a front bed that gets all day sun with no shade and heat. Are these roses disease resistant and would do well? Would they grow too tall for a front space?

Ha! When I saw this thread had been resurrected I knew it was you commenting! LOL! I hope someone can answer your quest. Here in Z6 in a regional public garden neither are monsters.

In 6b/nj area,what thrives more own root or grafted-does it make a difference,and if you order grafted how could you be sure that's what is going to come up the roses might look completely different?

You have just pointed out the main issue with grafted roses. 1 way to avoid this is to plant the graft at least 2" deep to protect it over the winter. I have had good luck doing that here but if I do not cover it those roses have died without exception.