Suckers: A lot like teenagers.

 

 
There are at least three suckers on this plant. They are taller than the other stems. They have no flowers buds at the ends and they are a lighter shade of green.

I am not referring to the kind that play roulette, buy lottery tickets —or buy pieces of the Brooklyn Bridge. I’m talking about the suckers that develop on rose plants. 

What are suckers?

Suckers are stems that form on the vigorous rootstock that your roses are budded (or grafted) onto. Since the rootstock is often so much more vigorous than the cultivated rose that piggybacks it, the sucker will soon rob the cultivated rose of it’s food supply.

If that’s not clear enough, look at it this way: Suckers are like teenagers, they grow really tall really fast, they suck all your energy, exhaust your food supply and they don’t produce—My teenage son gave me permission to write that description.

  The leaves on this sucker have six leaflets but they usually have seven.

With the exception of miniature roses, moss roses, and some modern roses, most of the roses in your garden can get suckers. When your rose is planted, the rootstock should be below the dirt level, but if the rose is planted too high or there is some erosion then your rose can sprout suckers. Suckers can also be caused by damage to the rootstock. They usually start out unnoticed and grow so fast that it will seem like they just suddenly appeared.

The suckers are easy to distinguish from the cultivated stems. They have seven leaflets and the stems are usually very thorny. The foliage of the suckers are ribbed and lighter green than the regular foliage. They rarely produce flowers.

Some gardeners say you should twist them off, instead of cutting them. I cut them because I have had so many thorns go through my gloves, and I don’t want owies on my fingers.

I cut as close as I can to the plant.

If you don’t want to twist them off, or cut them off, but you want them gone, simply drive them to the mall and give them a credit card that is almost to it’s limit and a cell phone that’s low on batteries and tell them you’ll be back in a few hours.

I didn’t ask my son’s permission for that one.

 

Comments

[Wendy]

LOL LOL LOL LOL Love the closing statement! But tell me, this is a first for me... the rootstock should be below the ground? You mean that knobby thing that sticks out? I thought that was supposed to be ABOVE ground. Can you clarify this for me? I have seen those ridiculous things sprout out and I just cut them off, too. No twisting for me either. Too painful. Let me know about the knobby thing or if that's something different than rootstock. Thanks! :-)

[chigiy]

Wendy, I am not the best gardener in the world. I just enjoy gardening. If you look at the last picture, you can see clearly that I have let the dirt around the knobby thing erode. The knobby thing is called the graft union. In Warm climates the rose should be planted so that the dirt comes all the way up to but not over the graft union. In cold climates I believe it should be below the dirt.
The rootstock is on the bottom half of the knobby thing and the cultivated rose is on top for the most part.
I hope that answers your question.

[Patricia Tryon]

My garden has two maluses and with their suckering tendency, they take up far too much garden effort. I'm desperate enough to try your ultimate solution ;)