Roses - two questions

When our roses started dropping petals we snapped off the heads to encourage reblooming (big thanks to advice given on here at the time :gnthb and we now have more growth and new buds forming.

What I'd like to know is this. Will the roses keep producing more blooms as long as we keep deadheading (while the season lasts obviously) or will they just rebloom the once?

ALSO I have noticed that a couple of rose bushes are actually the 'dog rose' type - white bloom, quickly over, like a wild rambling rose. But at the bottom there are tiny blooms coming from the base which are beautiful ornamental roses. It's been baffling me, but it just occured to me that maybe the root stock has taken over and the ornamental rose has been forced into second place. If I cut them back to the base will the rose grow from the old wood at the base, in the hope of rejuvenating it? Long shot, I don't know much about them, but just wondered.

 

Roses are part of a big family and will do different things. Some will only flower once, some flower twice and some flower all through the summer, it depends on the variety.
Can you post any pics?

On the second question, yes its worth cutting back the rose hard to encourage the better grafted rose to grow. If you cut below the graft you will only ever get a common dog rose.

Hope thats some help.
Will

 

Thanks Will. I'm a littlee confused! What's the graft? And how can I make certain I will not cut it back to the wrong place? There is obviously a better rose growing at the bottom - how do I determine where to cut?

 

If you've identified two different flowers om the same rose, it means one rose has been grafted (joined on top of another) normally the growers use a common easy to grow root stock for the host rose, then peel back the bark and graft on a bud from the more important rose. After a few weels the new bud starts to grow with a shoot leaves so they can cut off all the leaves from the original rose. (I don't think I'm expaining this very well) :hehe: anyhoo, sometimes if a rose has not been prunned back or tended for a while the original root sock rose can start growing again. It normally has a very simple pink flower, (nothing special).

WT

 

It does make sense - kinda :wink:

So do I need to cut back everything except the new blooms from the red rose at the bottom?

 

Forgive me . I love roses but am no expert but I remember as a child my father saying anything growing from a rose with seven leaves should be chopped off. Only five leaves should be allowed to grow.

I've just had a quick look round and most of my roses have seven leaves. Best ignore me I think

 

I too have been told that! Confusion reigns! :lollol:

 

It is not strictly true that rule about numbers of leaves.

If you can see the graft then it isn't planted deeply enough-you should replant it deeper as this helps to discourage suckers.


Anything that is growing from below the graft point will be the roses of the rootstock-as mentioned before usually a wild rose of some sort, anything above it then is the grafted rose. The graft is usually quite easily recogniseable-it looks like a knuckle and has rings of scars around it. Cut back with a sharp and clean pair of secauteurs the shoots that are growing from below this graft. Hope this helps.

 

What often happens is that the host rose (root stock) develops a sucker, this is always a vigorous fast growing shoot, you should pull it off the plant rather than prune it off which would encourage it to grow again and faster. As said already don't go on number of leaves.

 

This is the size of the problem - the rose in subject is the huge one in the back, behind tobacco plants!


The small red rose right at the bottom is coming from the huge dog rose!

 

Okay-first, I would identify which are suckers and which are grafted rose shoots. Remove the suckers and leave the rest until early next spring when you give it a good pruning.

It looks from here like you can get quite close to the base from behind the bush-and be confident, you can sort this out easily. Roses are magnificent plants.