Suckers on Roses

Tomtom my email address isn't available to you, well it shouldn't be. When I said is there any chance of a picture I meant for you to post it here on the thread please.

 

I don`t know how to put pics on here. I clicked upload a file and dragged two pics into the quote box but as you can see it remained empty. I`ll click the upload a file box again now and try to drag them in again. If they don`t come in I`ll leave it as wiseowl suggests. I`ve got it now. I need to down size them. Watch this space

 

Let`s see what happens now

 

There we go. On the top pic you can see the green flower bud stem with what appear to be new suckers starting to shoot above the buds. Note the five leaf pattern on the green

On the lower pic you can see on the centre green stem five leaves again but then a red shoot starts and heads for the stars. It`s not evident from this pic but the leaf pattern changes from five to seven leaves. I may have another pic showing this. If so I`ll post it now that I know how it`s done.

 

On the top pic you can see four or five red stems and the beginning of a load more at top right of the pic.
The bottom shows the change to seven leaf from five on the green shoots. This is a closer view of the green to red stem in the previous post 2nd picture down. Thanks for any comments everyone.

 

Thank you for the pictures Tomtom. At this point I'm inclined to think the shoots are just new growth even though there's a change in the leaf count. Perhaps you should leave them for now and prune them when the rose is dormant as usual, then check the leaf count again next spring when they start to grow again and make a decision then.

'Wiseowl' is GC's specialist on roses and perhaps he will give you advice from his vast amount of accumulated knowledge.

 

OK Sheal I`ll do that. let`s see what wiseowl thinks.
Thanks for your help up to now.

 

If you re-read Wiseowl's advice, you only get suckers from on or below the graft union. The only exception to this rule is on a double-grafted standard rose (with graft unions at the base of the stem and near the top where it bushes out).
If you have got new growth above the graft then it is just that...new growth! You could shorten these long new stems if you like, to encourage them to bush out, or if they're flexible enough then gently bend them into an arc and tie them in to the support. They'll produce short flowering shoots all along their length if they aren't allowed to grow vertically

 

Thanks noisette, I`ve already threaded one shoot to lie horizontal and I`ll try the others as well to see what happens. It`s late in the season now so perhaps I wont see any favourable results this year. Next year after a severe prune all should start again except that next year I won`t allow them to grow vertically at all.
Thanks