Hi, my larger rose bush has somehow sprouted this sapling. Can I ask the groups rose experts to help me ensure this grows to be a healthy bush. My main question now is should I prune it or just let it grow its own way?
I'm also going to relocate it but would prefer to do this in a few weeks, if I can leave it that long?
by Wh1teR1ot
6 Comments
You should prune it out. Almost always, vigorous shoots from the root area usually a sucker from the root stock that will sap energy from the grafted rose.
If it is growing from the root stock, it might be a bit useless (called a sucker) and you are better off pruning it. If you clear away at the base is it easy to see where it is coming from? (If your rose is on a root stock, it’ll be fairly obvious where the join was made).
You don’t nurture it. You get some secateurs and cut it off a couple of inches below the soil surface.
Why? Because (if I read the image right) this is a sucker from the rootstock, below the graft.
If that’s a sucker-which it almost certainly is.Deal with it asap.DONT prune it back,just loosen the soil locally,grab the shoots at their base and you will almost certainly expose a horizontal root that tracks right back to your desired rose.
Again,dont prune it,trace it back and pull it off cleanly at the original rootstock.👍
I’m going to go against the grain and say these are not suckers. They are dark green, large leaves and 5 leaflets on each leaf stalk, suckers are pale, small and have 7 leaflets. I think these are the intended rose. Tie them in while they are soft. When they mature they will be to hard to manouvre. Enjoy!
If you can expose the base of the shoot and find attached to some roots you could sever it from the plant, dig it up and plant it elsewhere but it is almost certainly a sucker from below the graft so is likely to be vigorous but not floriferous.