Why Is My Rose Producing Suckers from the Base?

Suckers are vigorous shoots that emerge from below the graft union — the swollen knob near the base of the plant where the cultivated rose variety was grafted onto a rootstock. The sucker is the rootstock growing back. Left unchecked, rootstock suckers can outgrow the grafted variety, eventually dominating and replacing the rose you planted. They are almost always more vigorous than the named variety above the graft, and they typically produce small, single, pale pink or white flowers — a common way of noticing that something has gone wrong.

How to identify a sucker

Suckers typically emerge from below ground level or from the base of the main stem below the graft union. They often grow at a different angle to the rest of the bush — frequently emerging at a shallow angle from the soil some distance from the main stem. The leaves on a sucker are usually noticeably different to the rest of the rose: often smaller, paler green, and with a different number of leaflets. Most grafted roses have five to seven leaflets per leaf; rootstock suckers often have seven or more. If you see a shoot with different foliage growing from below the graft union or from the roots, it is almost certainly a sucker.

Why cutting suckers at ground level makes them worse

The instinct is to cut a sucker at ground level as you would a weed, but this is counterproductive with rose suckers. Cutting stimulates the dormant buds around the cut to produce multiple new shoots, turning one sucker into three or four. The only effective removal method is to pull the sucker off at its origin point — which means scraping away the soil to expose where the sucker joins the root or stem, then pulling or twisting it off cleanly. This removes the dormant buds at the base of the sucker and stops regrowth.

Step-by-step sucker removal

Scrape away soil around the base of the sucker to expose where it originates from the root. Once you can see the junction, grip the sucker firmly as close to the origin as possible and pull it away sharply. The sucker should tear off cleanly with a small piece of bark. If you cannot pull it off by hand, use a sharp knife to pare it away flush with the root, taking care not to leave any small stumps with dormant buds. After removal, replace the soil and firm it back down.

Why suckers appear

Suckers are more likely to appear when the rootstock is disturbed — by digging, hoeing, or even by deep frost heaving the soil. Planting the graft union too deep (more than a few centimetres below the soil surface) also encourages suckering, as the rootstock produces more root growth and more potential sucker sites. In areas with warm summers, the graft union can be planted at or just below soil level; in colder climates, burying it slightly below the surface protects it from frost.

Suckers on standard roses

Standard (tree) roses are grafted at the top of a tall rootstock stem, and suckers can appear anywhere along that stem. Check the stem carefully and remove any shoots emerging from it below the head of the rose. Standards are more vulnerable to rootstock takeover than bush roses because the rootstock stem has so many potential sucker sites along its length.