Picture of Don’t Be A Sucker!
What is a Rose Sucker?
“A shoot from the root or lower part of a stem. In roses, a young cane emerging below the bud union and therefore representing the variety of the understock rather than the top variety.” (Source: http://glossary.gardenweb.com/glossary/sucker.html)
The Clematis Queen’s definition: Suckers are insidious! Let me point out that Rose Suckers are a phenomenon exclusive only to grafted roses and, if you are not careful and/or you don’t know what they are, they can sneak into your garden and you will have heck to pay!
Pictured above on the left is the rose’s sucker foliage and on the right is the real rose foliage.
How to Identify A Sucker
“Suckers normally emerge un-noticed, then suddenly seem to shoot above the rest of the rose bush in a matter of weeks. They are quite easily distinguished from the real rose, in that they have 7 leaflets making up the leaf, are very thorny, and also generally have light green and slightly ribbed foliage, as distinct from more bush roses foliage which is glossy and a darker green with 5 leaflets making up the leaf.” (Source: http://www.gardenseeker.com/roses/rose_suckers.htm)
What to Do If You Have Suckers?
If these suckers are allowed to grow they may eventually kill the cultivated (upper) portion of your rose because they will steal its energy. If that isn’t bad enough, their flowers are not even pretty! Their blooms will have no resemblance to those attractive rose flowers you originally bought your rose plant for. Solution: the suckers need to be removed!
How to Remove Suckers
To get rid of Rose Suckers totally, you need to dig down to where the sucker is starting to grow below the bud union and “pull”, “tear” or “twist” it off right at the root. I would recommend wearing heavy duty gloves to accomplish this (i.e. protect your hands from the thorns). All the rose experts I have encountered advise not to “cut off” the suckers because it encourages more suckers to grow. Unfortunately, you may discover as I did that this type of removal is much easier said than done. Pulling suckers out can prove to be problematic since suckers are capable of emerging several feet away from the base of the plant. They are not likely to cooperate with you by making their removal a piece of cake, especially when they have sprouted up in tight quarters such as a narrow pathway, under a prized plant (clematis) or in an already established portion of your garden. These types of situations make it nearly, if not impossible, to remove them correctly. So, what do you do? I confess, I sometimes do the unfathomable and cut the suckers off and then keep my fingers crossed that I won’t regret this course of action! I figure that when the conditions are as horrific as I just described, what have I got to lose? I happily welcome any other ideas or other solutions from those of you who are in my boat, the S.S Rose Sucker!
The Clematis Queen’s New Solution for Dealing with Suckers in the Future
Since removing suckers has been such a nightmare (at least that has been my experience) I plan on not being such a soft touch for the instant gratification that grafted roses provide. My new mantra (whenever possible) is to grow roses that have been grown on their own-root (also known as self- root)! So, my solution for dealing with suckers is to not purchase roses that have been budded onto rootstock (also known as understock). This means I will now be eliminating the hazards of unwanted suckers because I will only buy roses that won’t produce them…Hooray! I hope I’m not alone in my total contempt for suckers and I can only dream that we will see a serious resurgence of more and more own-root roses.
Mail Order Sources for Own -Root Roses:
Brushwood Nursery (http://www.gardenvines.com/)
Chamblee’s Rose Nursery (http://www.chambleeroses.com)
Heirloom Roses (http://www.oldheirloomroses.com)
Old Rose Nursery (http://oldrosenursery.com)
Otto & Son’s Nursery (http://www.ottoandsons-nursery.com)
Roses of Yesterday & Today (http://www.rosesofyesterday.com)
Roses Unlimited (http://www.rosesunlimitedownroot.com)
Two Sisters Roses (www.twosistersroses.com/climbers.html)
Vintage Nursery (http://www.vintagenurseries.com)