If it was own-root, then yes it is a nice basal. If it's grafted, check that the leaves, stem colour etc. match the parent plant, otherwise it could be a sucker. The pic is a little small for me to see if it's the same rose. If it's a sucker you need to hack it off with a shovel as far down as possible.

The bush looks nice anyway! Nice dark red.

Well, I must admit to a lot of ignorance! I have no idea if it's an own-root or not. I bought it in a gallon pot from a local nursery last year.

Northspruce, thanks for replying. I only know the term 'basal', but not what it really means, and why it's supposed to be desirable, or not? I went out this morning and took more pictures. The 'thing' measures about 3/8 inch in diameter, while the stems of the small bush are about 1/8 inch. The stems on the bush are mostly green, with a little light red on the tips. The thorns are bigger and redder on the 'thing' than on the bush. The basal or sucker emerged about 6 inches away from the main stem. The leaves look the same on each.

I dug down carefully, and found that it is attached to the main stem at about the same level as the other side stems. Are the side stems called laterals? See how much I don't know!

Here is a different view of the basal or sucker
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These are the leaves on it
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These are the leaves on the bush
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I hope all this can help you to help me. Thanks.
Peggy

Peggy, those pics help. I think it's almost equally likely and unlikely to be a sucker. :0(

The factors that make me suspect sucker, are 1)lack of laterals on the "thing", 2) dark red stem (though new growth is often red), 3) apparent lack of buds on the "thing", 4) obvious vigour, more so than the rest of the plant, and 5) distance from parent plant (although this isn't impossible for a basal either).

For the fact that the leaves look similar, that it is not apparently "taking over" the parent plant, and your description of it coming from the same place as the other stems, I would give it the benefit of the doubt. If you leave it until fall and it hasn't bloomed or branched out (or bloomed the wrong colour!), it's a sucker and you should dig down and chop it off with a sharp shovel.

About the terminology - "basal break" is a desirable, thick shoot that comes from low down, the building block of the rose bush. If your rose hasn't produced basals, it's either a one-cane wonder (LOL) or tends to look thin & floppy (this is normal for a young, own-root plant tho). "Laterals" as you guessed are secondary branches that come off basals - note that your "thing" has none, just compound leaves.

Hope that helps, I can't say for sure which it is but those are my reasons for not being sure. :0/

Gillian

Thanks Gillian. I guess we'll wait to see what happens, though it sure does look like what I imagine some alien life form might look like! We have a few other roses, some of which have suckered, but none which have looked like this, pointing straight up like that. Most of what you said about signs of suckering I didn't know, so I'm going to copy this for future reference.

One futher question if I may. I know that cutting off a sucker does no harm. But what about cutting a basal, especially out of ignorance? Does that set the bush back a bit? Would it kill it? Although as I said, we'll take a 'wait and see' attitude.

Peggy

If you cut off a basal, it won't do any harm except deprive you of a nice new segment of rose bush ;0) The rest of the bush won't even know.

Just to add to points 3 & 4, a sucker often grows straight up really spindly and makes no laterals. This is just my own observation based on (I assume) multiflora rootstock. Rootstocks are also usually once-bloomers so you often get a lot of tall growth with no flowers.

Still not sure which you have. If anyone else wants to add anything I would be interested to hear it.

My Lambert Closse likes to do this. Last year I had about four of these. They grow extremely fast - I swear it's a few inches a day. I do get flowers on them, so I'm okay with it :)

I get basal breaks quite often on my Canadian roses. I like when they pop up early because you'll have an older cane going into winter. This will make it tougher and survive the winter better. I'm sure that it will send up more and then your plant will look more even.
Peggy how tall is the new stem? Last year I planted Hope for Humanity and it is close to 3' tall now. My stems all came from the bottom because it died to the ground.
I'm also betting that it is on it's own root. I have only seen the Canadian roses sold this way locally, even in the hardware chain stores.
I will add that I only buy Own Root, so I do not have any experience with suckers coming from the bottom. Although something strange is happening by my Jacques Cartier(And it was supposed to be on own root). I've got some canes coming and the leaves don't match this JC. For the life of me I can't remember if I planted another rose by it, possibly thinking they would fit because everything was smaller. Guess I'll see when it blooms.

Shelley

Shelley, the new stem is 3 feet tall, while the bush itself is about 18 inches. Mine did not die all the way back, but enough did that I had to cut it back to about 4 inches.

I sure do wish the whole bush was 3 feet like yours - lucky you! I like the idea of an older cane going into winter, so we'll see what happens over the rest of the summer.

Peggy

It's blooming! And lots more to come - yippee!

{{gwi:756224}}

I'm guessing now that it's a basal break. Plus there's another smaller basal coming along nicely. I'm so pleased!
Peggy

Yay, that's great news! I will not be so suspicious of a shoot so far from the main plant in future.

You have a healthy looking plant Peggy. I'm glad for you that it is a basal.

Shelley

Are Hope for Humanutiy roses allowed to be propagated? Those basal breaks would be perfect for more plants.