How can I revive this sad rose?

[ThereWillBeSnacks]

Pics attached (I hope). We inherited this ?climber / ?rambler from the previous owners last year. When we moved in they proudly told us that they had never touched the garden or any of the plants, and imo it shows!

I cautiously trimmed back a little bit earlier this year, which is where the new growth has appeared, but it's very weak and blackspotty. There are a couple of tiny buds but not much else, and I'm not convinced they are going to flower. I now have some decent pruning tools so could do a better job later in the year but I'm afraid of destroying it completely! I've been feeding, watering and mulching but it's in very poor soil and on a north-east facing wall so barely gets any sun.

I'd love to bring it back to life but fear it may be hopeless! Any tips from you rose experts?

I love your wall. <misses point>

I'd carrying giving it TLC and see what flowers you get. That might help determine which rose it is and then you can treat it accordingly next year. Gardening is a long game.

Roses are pretty resilient so I might be tempted to cut it back hard in autumn and move it to a sunnier wall/fence if you have one and buy another climbing rose more suited to that position (I believe there can be an issue with planting roses where they previously were or other climber for shade, or if you're feeling adventurous a fan trained Morello cherry).

As the last comments, I’d leave it this year but give it a rose feed, cut it hard back in autumn and see how it grows next year. Roses are very resilient.

Too late to prune this year, I agree ust let it flower to see if you even like it and if you do, hard prune it back over the autumn/winter and re-train it in as it grows.

To start with I’d prune it back to the strong 3 main stems. This will enable it to put all its energies into new growth rather than supporting the weak buds. It’s still early in the season for some Roses to be making bud growth and you want to encourage a strong framework.
Continue feeding with specific rose fertiliser and mulching. As said before roses are very resilient, I’ve got two climbers on a N facing wall, admittedly they are not as prolific as others in the garden, but they do ok.

@senua we're very lucky, the whole plot is surrounded by lovely old red brick walls so I am am very keen to get healthy-looking climbers and ramblers to set them off!

@StyleDesperation I'm not sure it's moveable, sadly. It's hard up against the wall, can't even get a finger behind the main stem, and the 'soil' is basically unworkable. I think it's probably been there for 20+ years - that's how long the previous owners were here and they were very vocal about their total lack of interest in anything garden-related so I assume they didn't plant it! I do rather like the sound of a Morello cherry though - we have a huge cherry tree in the front so maybe a little one in the back to match!

Thanks everyone - I will continue to give it some love (hope I don't kill it with kindness...) and then be brave with cutting right back in the autumn.

I agree with pruning hard. Thats what you're meant to do. But too late in the year now. But we inherited loads of rosebushes. All blackspotty, aphids etc. Spent loads on stuff to try and fix them but they never got much better. Dug them out after a few years.