Bill, it would be helpful to know what rose this is.

Jeri in CA

This was labeled, "Double Take My Bouquet Rose Bush".

This second picture is to show the difference from the old growth vs this new growth at the soil level (didn't want to disturb the roots).

This post was edited by Billsgarden13 on Fri, Mar 22, 13 at 0:27

You might want to email the seller and see if it is own root or grafted.

Your rose is in a pretty small pot- so my guess is that it came in something even smaller? Was it possibly a 4inch size container? (the length of one side of the top opening, not depth of container)

If it came in something that small, it's almost certainly own root. And it's fine.

A grafted plant generally is pretty large (yours looks like a young plant). Also, any bud union is generally planted visibly above the soil line, it's like a knot of wood-- with an inch or two of thick, finger sized, root stock cane holding it above the soil.
I can't imagine a grafted rose being sold potted with the bud union under the soil. Even in zone 4, where I am a lot, I've never seen a rose at a nursery with it's bud union buried in the pot- the pot would need to be so big (deep)
(When we plant them outside up here in the cold north, we do plant them under the soil, however)
So, I think it's own root if you can't tell if it's budded or not.

This post was edited by lola-lemon on Fri, Mar 22, 13 at 12:43

Might be best to let it bloom and then see what the flower looks like. Sometimes own roots put out growth like that that can appear to look like suckers. Unless you can dig down and see a graft union (with the new cane coming from below the graft), I'd leave the new cane be.

Ditto with Buford. The differences should be fairly obvious. If they aren't, I'd leave it alone. You can still break it off the root structure if it turns out to be a root-stock sucker.

The last thing you want to do is to destroy a legitimate basal shoot.

Lola-lemon: You are right. This rose was originally sold in a 4 inch pot from the seller and I had moved it up to its current pot, a 6 inch diameter x roughly 6 inches deep ceramic. And when I had repotted I did not see anything that was roughly finger-size thick coming from anywhere.

Buford/rosetom: Thanks for the heads up- I think I am going to let it bloom first to be the determining factor before taking it off. The main reason for my concern is that since my bush is so small, I didn't want any suckers to kill it off. But the rest of the bush seems fine-it's even putting out new growth still.

Thank you all for your help! We shall wait and see what happens!

To all:

I just heard back from the seller (Hirt's Gardens) and they responded that they don't carry any grafted roses- so this is an own root with just one heck of a basal shoot!

Thanks again for all of your help and insight!

So glad you figured it out. A clue for future reference is that the new growth (red) on the older cane looks just like the new growth (red) on the new cane. It does NOT look at all like Dr. Huey, the most used rootstock, which (at least here) produces new leaves that are green with red edges.

Jackie