I found a rose at the nursery last fall with a nice trunk and good nebari.
I cut about 1/2 the foliage back this spring and will do so again after this growing season.
I didn't want to prune too hard while the roots recovered.

After I prune it again, the foliage should be much more in scale with the trunk.

I think its good to have a rose bonsai to act as a bug sink.
The bugs tend to stay away from everything else and just focus on the rose.
It's fine by me... then I only have to spray 1 "tree".

Just joined recently and saw this. I like it. Time will do nothing but improve this. Looks like one of the "Knock Out" series of roses. I think I heard the Knock Out roses are usually produced by cuttings rather than grafting. Very nice.

Reminds me of the images from that long out of print book "4 seasons of bonsai". It may never be a classical bonsai, but sure has the potential to become a beautiful plant in a pot. Kusamono or what ever the correct term is for a planting without grasses, grown for appreciation of its beauty in its own right. (I think to use the term Kusamono, it has to be a mixed planting with grasses and other plants, does anyone know the term for a single species plant grown for appreciation?) Shitakusa is the term for an accent plant. This rose will be too bold to use an accent except for the largest and most powerful of bonsai.

For myself, I love the look of a hybrid tea rose. I will probably be ordering a few hybrid tea roses from an outfit that specializes in supplying them on their own roots, no graft. Thanks for inspiring the idea.

owen like that swamp rose what kind of antique pot did you have in mind

I don't know why we don't use roses as bonsai more often. They are hardy, good in most climates, and its possible to find really old hedge material.
 I saw one in someones yard the other day. it was awesome! good nebari, old trunk with taper, lil yellow flowers. I knocked on the door, but no one was home.
 Shinji Susuki says his favorite tree is a rose that his old master (Kimura's master also), Hamano gave him. So they are being used in the Bonsai motherland, Japan.
 We use many species of trees that are close relatives for bonsai culture, like crab apple and hawthorn.