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This is growing from soil below but it has some stems with three leaves and some with 7 leaves. From what I know this is an alpine rose plant. The last image is the main main stem.

In the image below, it seems as if the stem is coming from the root part, or maybe beloew the graft? enter image description here enter image description here

This stem with three leaves is coming from the supposedly sucker. enter image description here enter image description here Main Plant

What do I do now? Wait more? Or cut the stem out? Can this be grown in another pot?

enter image description here enter image description here

Here is the exposed sucker

enter image description here

4-K
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2 Answers2

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Suckers often form after there has been some damage to the roots - did you recently repot this rose?

In my experience, suckers from below the graft have never been worth the trouble to grow on. The rootstock exists to allow roses to be propagated true to type and often to add vigor to the rose grafted onto it. Some rootstocks are hardier than others while others are more disease prone. This site has an interesting, short discussion on rootstock roses if you're interested in learning more about them.

In my case, I've seen the rootstock Dr. Huey grow from its roots into a six foot tall, gangly and very prickly monster, with insignificant, ugly flowers. The grafted rose then died (possibly, I thought at the time, because Dr. Huey had appropriated all/most of the nutrients and water for itself), leaving me with a nasty mess. In another case, the rootstock suckered into a shorter impenetrable and prickly shrub that hid the grafted rose. I was able to save that rose by viciously pulling out the suckers.

My advice is to remove the sucker ASAP - but DON'T cut it. This WikiHow site contains decent instructions on how to excavate around the sucker to expose the root, and then how to pull the sucker from the root, at the root. I should note that I'm not usually a fan of the information on that site, but these instructions are easy to follow and correct.

I would not recommend that you root the sucker itself, as rootstock roses are not grown for their flowers.

Jurp
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  • I repotted this months before. Like 5-6 montgs before. – 4-K Feb 12 '21 at 20:02
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    Hmmm. That seems awfully long ago to create a sucker. The third and fourth photos show what appears to be at least one more sucker below the graft. I'm wondering if perhaps the plant got stressed recently? The leaves of the alpine rose do look a bit "off", and I can see dead and yellow leaves on that stem. Perhaps the rose didn't receive enough fertilizer? Too much/too little water? Maybe the temperature fluctuated a lot between warm and cold? – Jurp Feb 12 '21 at 21:49
  • So I did what was told in the guide, but the suckers is sprouting from thr main stem. Have updated with a pic. – 4-K Feb 13 '21 at 06:18
  • You should still be able to pull the sucker from the stem. Try bending it to one side, then the other (the intent is to weaken or break the sucker at the point where it sprouted from the stem below the graft), then try gently twisting it to remove it. Do NOT cut it off or you'll get more. Next step after that is to try to figure out what stressed the rose enough to cause the suckering. – Jurp Feb 13 '21 at 20:15
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It seems that it growth under the graft, so you have one of the basic roses. It seems the alpine rose, but the flowers are from the other rose, right?

You should cut it. On roses, you can always cut a branch and put in soil: it will very probably make roots. I like the wild roses: they growth well, a lot of flowers, and they are fertile, so in winter you have a lot of red berries (which gives some colours). But remember: they are different roses (really the real roses), so they growth differently (and very vigorous, and you will get used with spines).

Giacomo Catenazzi
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