After looking at your little sucker and your description of everything you've done, I'd say you have very little to worry about. Roses are tough and want to live and with all that TLC I'm sure they'll flourish. I did the same thing with Damask of Glendora and ended up with about five new roses, some of which I gave away to some very happy friends.

Ingrid

Thanks Ingrid. I whole heartedly agree with you about the joy of giving roses to others. That is one of the reasons I have tried to learn everything I could about propagating roses this past year.

Scott

I don't have any roses that I've separated through suckering, but I've sure hovered and babied rose cuttings. I'm always so happy a new plant has grown from a stick. That's such an amazing thing to me, still. I like your blog. I hope the Prague-ites enjoy the roses you and your wife are growing in the park and that your rose club flourishes. Are you planting tea and china roses too?

This past year the work in the Prague Rose Garden has been primarily first year work of reestablishing the bed and putting in young plants. I hope this next year the garden will begin to put on a bit of a show which could attract a little more attention from people in the community.

I have grown teas here before but they just can't take the cold. We are really on the boundary of zones 6 and 7. This year however we have only had a couple of nights down in the teens. I have not ever tried any Chinas. Any suggestions?

hmm. You're colder than I thought. So, well, I'm probably not someone that can help a whole lot as I haven't grown chinas in a 7a/6b zone. There is a poster from around Tulsa that grows a lot of teas and chinas, though. If you do a posting asking for info on "Chinas and Teas in Oklahoma" or somethingorother like that, she might see or answer your query.

My favorites of what I've grown are Spice, Cramoisi Superieur and Ducher but they are all rated 7b. Two others I've grown and like, Perle d'Or and Jean Bach Sisley are rated to 6b, I think. Old Blush is rated in the 6's also, I think.

In your pictures on the blog those look like pretty good size healthy plants in their own right so I don't think you should have any problem with separating them.

I'm in zone 6 and I'm going to try to grow a tea but I don't think I'd push to a china. Although a lot of people on here have said I could grow Mutabilis and I just may try it too.

Still learning about all this stuff and I just wanted to clarify. The original plants were own-root, correct? You wouldn't be able to do this if they were grafted, would you? Thanks!

I don't have much experience with propagation except for rooting tips - my Mme Legras de St Germain has very long arching canes, and about 12 years go, before pruning it to a more manageable dimenstion (she was trying to eat the deck) I pegged down a few of the canes - literally with old wooden clothespins - piled on some small rocks, and voila, the next spring had rooted new plants.
Very easy to do.

zaphod42 - You are right. Mine are own-root roses and if you have a sucker growing on a grafted rose you would want to discard it as it would be a plant of your rootstock.

sunnyside - I have also propagated roses from layering as you described. That was the first way I successfully propagated a rose. I think it is pretty amazing how roses can be propagated in so many differant ways.