Congratulations! That's a new basal cane. Healthy, happy rose bushes produce several new canes from the base (aka basal) each year in addition to lots of twiggy lateral canes. Pat yourself on the back, you're doing well.

Hi and thanks for the reply. It's a Dark Desire, I bought it bare rooted and it has now just started flowering :-)

Thanks, good to know it's supposed to be there! Hehe I'll have to look up basal canes

That cane is what all rose lovers look forward to. Congratulations! You have a happy rose.

Accd to HMF, Dark Desire will get about 4 feet wide and 5 feet high. In order to do that, it needs to grow. This new basal cane is good news - it means the rose has lived through its initial "baby" stage, and is starting to put out serious canes. You can expect more of them in the future. Where are you located, approximately, geographically?

Jackie

It's a basal cane. There are two types of growth a rose makes: 1) basal canes, and 2) lateral shoots. Flowers appear at the tips of each kind of growth.

Basal canes are the largest growths, both in diameter and length. They generally emerge from the crown of the rose. A rose's crown is a woody/semi-woody clump which is just at and a bit below ground level on an own root rose, and at the graft union on a grafted rose. Crowns grow larger as a rose bush ages.

The structure of the rose bush is built by basal canes. When a rose sends up a basal cane, it's time to do a happy dance. It means the rose is regenerating itself. A rose bush is not growing properly if it does not produce basal canes. The more basal canes a rose has and the more it produces every year means the rose is thriving. One or two new basal canes produced a year is average. Any more is a blessed bonus. No new basal canes produced in a growing season is a sign of concern especially for a young bush.

Congratulations Dave, your rose is growing very well. Keep up the good work! Having a basal cane is like having a new baby...rosarianly speaking.

Don't touch it at this time! Let it do its thing. Next spring at leaf out it's pruning time. At that time you reduce its length to conform to the balanced symmetry of the bush. I would say, going by the photo you provided, to about 16" height from the ground.

Nice! :-)

Thank you everyone! Glad to know that the rose is happy and is growing well. Buying bare rooted had me a bit worried as I wasn't sure if it was growing but it did.

i'm located in Melbourne, Australia so it can get a little cold in winter, hence using the sugar mulch at the base.

I have one other Dark Desire which is also growing well, by no serious basal cane yet.

i have two other "grandpa roses" as well and for next season, I'm planning on growing some of the purple coloured Blue Moon standards.. and a fragrant "peach coloured" rose - haven't decided on the variety of that one though.

Thanks for the kind words, I'm sure I'll have more wuestions as time goes on!

Dave

I was so worried when my grafted DDs exhibited this; I thought they were infected with RRD! However, I now have 5 canes all over 5' tall and one about 5.5' and I only planted it Aug. 1st! This is what you can expect:

Ah nice! I was wondering why on all the roses the "new growth" has that dark red colour to it, but I'm sure that will change over time. I look forward to more canes growing, but you look like yours is going really well.

I chose the Dark Desire based on the colour and the fragrance. I'm very partial to fragrant roses - they all just smell so good :D

I thought it was Dark Desire. This rose likes to put out long canes. Enjoy!