My daughter in-law has a new HT rose in a terracotta pot on her patio. I noticed today what fine example of rose-suckering it was making - so out came the camera.
Suckers arise from the stem of the plant below where the desired variety was grafted onto a brier stock - so the suckers show the characteristics of the wild brier rather than the cultivar.
Rose suckers can vary a lot in appearance - that's because many different types of stock are used by nurseries. However in general they have more 'leaflets' than the cultivated type.
In the picture the suckers seven leaflets, whereas the plant has five
leaflets. Take this as guide as there is a good deal of variation even
with one plant - so base your decisions on an visual average.
The
best way to deal with these cheeky little suckers is to pull them of at
the base of root stock, that way you should get rid of the bud that
shoots arise from - if you are lucky. Some rose sucker like mad others
never do - so keep you eyes open, especially when growth is rapid, it
has been known that suckers take over completely!
Mini Roses and some other modern ones are raised from cuttings and so have no root stock for suckers to come from. In the above photo the sucker foliage is on the left the desired plant is on the right - note that in this case the sucker has significantly smaller leaflets.
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