This Forum will close on Wednesday 27 March, 2024. Please refer to the announcement on the Discussions page for further detail.
Are these rose suckers?
Can anyone help? Crazy abnormally tall growths in the last week on some of my established roses:
Rose 1
close-up of Rose 1 leaves - there seem to be 5 on some stems and 6 or 7 on others:
Rose 2
Close-up of Rose 2 leaves - there seem to be 7 on each stem
Thinking of cutting off 2. Not sure about 1.
They have not come from the base but near the base. Rose 1 is Fred Loads (shrub rose) and Rose 2 is Buff Beauty (a hybrid musk). As I understand it suckers don't always have to come from below the rootball and have to have 7 leaves to qualify as a sucker? Is this right?
Last edited: 03 September 2016 16:58:35
0
Posts
can you show where these stems originate please?
suckers have to come from below the graft, wherever it is.
In the sticks near Peterborough
Sorry, I couldn't get a photo of the origin of the stems. I will try tomorrow. I saw a video that said the suckers could be identified from the number of leaves...and if it was 7 then it should be a sucker. Has anyone found this in their experience? These roses are really old and the root ball seems to be above the soil now. I think therefore the graft maybe above the soil and around there is where these stems have come from.
Counting the number of leaflets will not tell you whether it's a sucker or not. Older type roses, and some of the newer ones too, which have ramblers and other types in their genetics often have more leaflets.
I've grown Buff Beauty in several gardens - it's a gorgeous rose, a hybrid musk with long arching elegant stems and a fantastic fragrance. In my gardens its grown to 7/8 ft tall and at least four feet across. It's a large shrub. Those aren't suckers - they're healthy new growth which will have the blooms on next year.
Fred Loades is also a large shrub rose. The new growth on that one doesn't look like sucker growth etiher, just normal new growth.
P.S. Classic Roses give Buff Beauty's size as five foot x five foot.
I think that's a conservative estimate in my experience.
Last edited: 03 September 2016 18:39:38
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Thanks Dovefromabove. That's helpful info about the number of leaves and rose varieties. Why are these new shoots shooting out up to the high heavens? They are soooo long and don't look right.
We have another buff beauty which is really nice. This one has not done very well and hasn't flowered much at all, and then this strange long stem.
That's the typical growth of a Buff Beauty, "long arching elegant stems". Those stems will grow side branches next season.
Looking at your photo, I don't think there's enough room there for a Buff Beauty. They're much bigger than most HT roses.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Thanks Dove. It's pretty old though and has been there since we moved in over 10 years ago...not sure we can move it, there is a thick woody stem. We could move the hybrid teas on either side....