Very old hybrid tea on last leg. please help

[CindyC720]

Hi there! I have a very old (like 15-20 years or so) hybrid tea rose bush. My mother planted it and used to tend to it but for the past 5 years or so she hasn't due to physical demands. The bushes are basically indestructible (except for the tea). They went without being watered, pruned or weeded at all for years and years and still produced many wonderful blooms each year. So I feel like the soil and sun must be good. But they never get any plant food or anything like that. Plus we are in a drought where I live so I've been trying to keep the watering to as much as a minimum as possible since I pruned. Anyways, I try to tend to the roses when I can at her house. Earlier in the season I went and pruned them all. I was worried about the hybrid tea and just went and checked on the new growth and its much less than I had hoped for. Forgive me because my terminology may not be exactly right. From the base it only has one cane. Just one, its so sad. It only produced 4 roses this year. Its goes about 3 1/2 ft up before it starts to split off into other branches. I believe it was suffocated by a different random rose bush that was never planted and possibly killed off the other cane. But since I don't tend to them as often as needed I don't know when the other cane died. I know it used to have 2 a few years back. From what I've read I believe it was one of the hybrids it was grafted to possibly. Anyways I hacked that one away but the damage was done. The one cane is still alive. Its sprouting two tiny new shoots. Anyways.. My main question is, is the anyway to encourage new growth toward the base of the plant? I had to stabilize the taller part as it was leaning a bit. I would like to keep it as a bush instead of a tree. Is there anyway to force it to grow more from the base? Or anyway to force the lower bud eyes to shoot out? Unfortunately there are very few eyes. The base has a lot of dead wood lookin stuff and covered in bark. But like I said the one cane seems very healthy so I feel like there's hope. Sorry this post is so long. Just wanted to make sure and give the details that may be needed. I don't know much about roses so I typically just refresh myself on how to prune each year. Is there any food I should give to the plant?

I'm sure some of you are wondering how I could let a beautiful hybrid tea get this bad. Don't worry, I'm kicking myself and the lesson was learned.
Thanks!!!

[imafan26]

It depends on where the graft union is. You really don't want shoots to spring from the rootstock, they will be a different rose.

Roses are heavy feeders and should be fed frequently as well.

https://www.rose.org/the-rosarian-re-lea ... e-by-rose/
https://www.heirloomroses.com/info/care/how-to/pruning/

[luis_pr]

The problem with trying to get the rose to do what you want is that the plant does not speak English and it will do as it pleases, which sometimes directs growth to where I do not want it. I sometimes have "discusions" with my plants asking where do they think they are going with this and that stem but hey, do they listen? Ha! Noooo, my roses like to ignore me; ever see those stems that zoom to the sky just out of nowhere in seconds almost? I yell 'no, not that a way' but they persist. Ha.

You can pinching the leaf buds, adding high nitrogen fertilizers like blood meal or those like alfalfa meal which contains powerful growth stimulants (a natural hormone) like Triacontanol and see if some of the resulting growth goes "where you want it" and produces new canes. Just do not go overboard adding fertilizers in your aim to get more canes.