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Rose to identify
Stephanie newish gardener
Posts: 516
in Plants
We have two big old roses that I think might be ramblers but they don't entirely fit the description in books as they seem to be standard roses that have gone nuts. See pics below
Questions - any idea what variety they are?
Do I prune now once the flowers finish? They do produce hips which I left on last year and they don't always flower this well, but that's probably due to my erratic pruning in recent years since they had been sorely neglected and were massive monsters which needed taming!
I can't recall if they are repeat flowering
Thanks
Bush one
Bush two
No longer newish but can't think of a new name so will remain forever newish. 
0
Posts
With the 5-petalled single flowers, I suspect they could be Rosa canina (Dog rose) but could well be wrong as I'm no rose expert.
Last edited: 01 July 2017 10:03:38
Whatever rose or roses you've had growing there previously, have long since vanished I'm afraid, and what you have now are rootstock which have suckered and grown up in place, and any original roses have disappeared... this often happens with neglect over a long perioid, when the rootstock takes over and is allowed to dominate.... the rose you have now is known under various names, but I use Rosa frobellii 'Laxa'... commonly just Laxa rootstock.... pretty white flowers followed by exceptional red hips in autumn.... fine in itself, but my garden is full of it underground, feeding the named variety roses that grow above the soil... all grafted roses that you buy as bare roots in the winter, are grafted onto this rootstock...
Up to you whether you want to keep them or not....
Thanks malorena, that sounds feasible as we have a number of little bushes growing up near this one and I tend to give them a chance to flower and ditch them if they don't.
The flowers are actually pale pink and my husband calls it a dog rose, something familiar from his childhood. I'm happy to keep the two tall ones as they give height and interest but guess I should keep a closer eye out for suckers
The sight and perfume of those pale pink Dog Roses ? always reminds me of my childhood. They seemed to grow everywhere In those days now long gone. I wish I had some in my garden.
Collect some hips and start growing some this autumn. I did that when we moved here and now have some vicious plants in the hedge which produce gorgeous five petalled flowers in June. I need to wear a chain mail suit when I cut the plants back.
Having been in the garden all day I'm not so sure these are rogue roses, unless marlorena means they were once standard roses with totally different flowers. The two bushes are in separate beds a good 50 feet apart, and the only place I get what I've always thought were self seeded roses is near ish to the first one. We took another rose out from there two years ago and it did have suckers, but the big one never seems to, just has new shoots from the second thick stem it had which we cut back to make a better shape.
Either way they are pretty and I'm wondering if I dead head whether there will be more flowers later, though I think not
We know the bed was created in 1982 but don't know when the roses were planted, though they are clearly old!