Virginia, I can't help with the potting up, but just want to say that I hope you'll recover quickly from the surgery. I think of you often when I'm in the garden, particularly when I'm looking at camellias, as I know you're fond of them too.

Paradise 'Blush'. It looks much better in reality - my camera is a cheapie.

Amen to Titian's good wishes, Virginia: get well soon!

About the suckers, just pot them, preferably in better potting soil than I use, or stick them in a propagating bed. Get a few inches of root. Don't worry if they don't have little feeder roots: those will grow. Shorten the canes if they have a lot of top growth. Keep them out of full sun and watered, and wait. Usually I do this in fall, but your summers are a lot wetter than ours are, and it's worthwhile experimenting. I find growing roses from suckers easier than from cuttings: they almost always take.

I've done like what was stated above. I dig up the sucker and tried to keep some roots with it and keep it watered.

I, too would spade closer to the mother plant enough to try to get some root with the sucker, and then pot it up or plant in ground and water.

Welcome back, Virginia! Pretty much what's been said. I prefer to keep them in filtered shade, partial or morning sun, depending upon the time of year and how hot it is. As long as they don't fry or completely dry out, they usually make it.

I do just what Shelia said, did it my first time this year. I've been thinking of you often Virginia , as well, and I hope you get well soon! I figured you must have been going through something, I did two threads for you and I will bump them back up for you to see if you feel like reading them. Best wishes and know you are in my thoughts!

If I have the luxury of time, I carefully excavate close to the mother plant, snip the connection between the two, and leave the sucker in place to fend for itself and grow some roots. If I HAVE to dig it right then, which happens when I'm somewhere besides my own garden, I treat it like a cutting (minus the rooting hormone) ... potting it in a milk jug, covering it with a cut-off soda bottle, and keeping it in the shade to grow roots.

I am tending suckers like this now, that I lifted from plants at Hollywood Cemetery ... 'Climbing American Beauty', "Nanny Pelouze Moss", and "Doswell Alba". All have grown nice roots and are in the process of being transitioned to life on the 'outside'.

Best wishes for your continued recovery!

(Here is a photo of a root on the "Doswell Alba", which Doug Seidel felt was 'Alba Maxima' ... a rose that I have been completely unable to propagate via cuttings. I am ever so thankful that it sent out a sucker, because this now means that I have an insurance copy in case something (Heaven forbid) would happen to the original.)

Thanks, Trish and Melissa for the good wishes.

Trish, I don't grow any of the 'Paradise' camellias, but I do like the looks of them. Even with a cheapie camera, that's quite a pretty thing- thanks!

Melissa, your potting up instructions sound pretty much like how I would expect to go about it, so that's reassuring. Sometimes the "obvious" way to do something really is the best way, but when I do anything for the first time, I often over-think stuff...

Virginia

Thanks to all for the kind thoughts and good advice.

Since I do have time to work with, I may go with the "Hartwood method" and cut the sucker off, but leave it in place until it either grows roots or gives up the ghost.

Keeping it watered in the meanwhile is something that may not happen if I'm not vigilant, so I may ask my husband to move the plant where it is likely to get water. I'm not allowed to lift anything weighing over 10 lbs for the next 6 weeks. Just about all my plants are in filtered shade, so that helps.

Alana, I'll look to see if I can find your threads for me.

Thanks again,

Virginia

Virginia, just chiming in that I am thinking of you and sending wishes for quick and smooth healing and ongoing peace of mind. Not much to add regarding cuttings except to note that, as mentioned, I find that suckers with some roots have the best chances and ones that have been sliced, tagged and left in place, as Hartwood suggested, usually succeed. Carol

My somewhat limited experience is that digging up and removing suckers can be a shock, and they do not always survive. They may not have enough roots to stand on their own. If you must, you must; but if you have time it is better to find the connecting root and sever the sucker while it is still in the ground. Leave it undisturbed for a month or so, then dig it up and pot it up. That gives it time to form new roots.

Wishing you quick healing.

Rosefolly

Thanks, Carol, Ken and Rosefolly-

I think I'll be "snipping the umbilical cord" and leaving the sucker in place for a while once I get the pot moved to a more visible site.

Virginia

Good luck! Let us know how it goes. :-). Carol

Carol, I figure it will probably do fine since it isn't a treasured rarity like Connie's "Doswell alba", and since I really don't need a second 'CdR' plant not blooming here...

I do hope to find a home for the sucker if it prospers, though, so this isn't just a learn-how-to-do-it exercise.

The trick will be making sure it stays watered, and so the first step will be asking my beloved garden helper to move it to a good spot where he will see the plant and remember to water it on a regular basis.

Thanks to all for the good advice,

Virginia