No, don't cut them! The Robinas that sucker are the non-grafted ones. Trees you buy from the nusery will be grafted onto non-suckering rootstock.

Robyn

Robyn

really ? that would be wonderful. i guess i could check with the nursery where i bought them. i didn't there was such a thing as non-suckering grafted robinia's. i thought they still suckered, even when grafted, although not so badly.

here's hoping. thanks for your advice

karen

Well, no Robin! I speak from experience I have a pink flowering robinia, grafted and it does sucker. I do not disturb roots in my garden, however, my neighbour who diggs from time to time gets my suckers. Poor man he thinks it is the birds.

And, no do not get rid of them, because when you do you will have a whole forest of them. My daughter cut hers down, she is still running aroung her backyard with roundup.

Karen I think Robinias are the worst thing. I planted two Mop Tops about 4 years ago (grafted onto long standard). I was extremely careful about not digging around them but had to stake them in the early stages and that must have done it! Babies are sprouting up to 10 metres away. I can see that if you decide to cut them down they will go crazy as that happened to a friend of mine with Frisia (golden leaves)? Mine our coming out but I think I will tackle them with blackberry killer or something similar, then chop. There may be a substitute with the golden leaves at www.flemings.com that someone in WA stocks but I'm going back to Silver Birch which was my original idea.
Good luck Rose

There have been a few other topics on here about Robinias suckering. If you do a search on this site for Robinia, it should come up.

Thank you for your advice. Summary seems to indicate if they are grafted from nursery stock and if you do not dig around roots they are unlikely to succker.

I suspect in my case that our trees were cut because they (1) dropped leaves and (2) blocked someone's view.

The next step is to mount a case for suitable replacement.

Please spare me from philistines!

Well Robinia is a plant that loves Water, And must be kept moist all year round. and yes it can and will sucker, Sucksers must be removed from the roots, not cut off at ground level. Never plant near pipesA Rowen is a nicer Tree or a read pear for mine.

regads old Fred.

I had a lovely specimen of 'Lady Lace' which succumb to or probably caused a water leak. Fell over. Much to my disappointment. We chain sawed it up but didn't get around to pulling the stump, a month or so later I was delighted to see a shoot which had the curling characteristics of tree. I have let it grow over this last year and it is now near a metre high..... What I would like to know is how can I save this growth? I was hoping somebody would know how to or what to graft it onto so I could pot it up. And save it. Apparently a rare plant. I need to remove stump as it is quite decayed. And yes the suckers are driving me nuts.

Wait for it to drop its leaves, than it could be lifted make sure you take as many roots as you can, place the pot on some bricks so the roots wont grow back into the ground, This plant is like a willow its roots love water and getting into pipes, The suckers are bad news I would use black berry & tree Killer In the growing season so may be Spring all the best

I'm in SW Colorado and love my robinia, when I'm home to witness it blooming. It's been in the ground maybe 15 years. At first, it suckered, annoying my neighbor no end. But I haven't seen any in at least 7+ years. I planted one, hoping I'd get a matching pair, but that one reverted to plain locust with no flowers.

When my robinia was younger, it was climbed by at least one bear cub (mama's footprints were in the mud at the base and she left gashes on the trunk), which knocked a branch off. That, or another bear, climbed the tree two years later, ripping a big branch off, leaving an ugly wound. We fixed that up by bolting a board onto it. To my knowledge, no more bear activity since. I have yet to figure out what attracted the bears to the robinia, as my blackberries were left alone.

My neigbour got a lot of suckers in his yard so poisoned them in his yard and killed my tree, it was 7 years old and 10m tall and provided shade for my deck in summer. I was devastated and now don't talk to my neighbour. If you want to stay friends with neighbours (especially if you live on small inner city blocks where roots will go next door) don't plant these trees as beautiful as they are.

Thank you for your comments! So sorry grantmclean! The lace lady I had was just a stunning specimen of a tree and I know it's only a tree.... but it was lovely and I hadn't seen another and it has taken me a while to find another in my search for a new one!

I pick it up today!!! After asking at numerous nurseries, out of desperation one day I was in my local Bunnings I asked and they found!!! I checked it out yesterday and it's about a metre high! Far from 6 metre original!

I have decided to grow it in a pot to avoid the suckers! And take it with me to any new house I may move to!