Marchesa Boccella goes from one stick to a huge mass in just a few years.

This bush was a sucker from the mother bush to it's right. And it started as one stick coming out of the ground. When I first found it I waited for winter and easily dug and followed the root back to the mother plant. I cut that root at the mother plant and all the way to where it was coming out of the ground. It survived and built the 2nd bush. I'm waiting and hunting for any more wayward suckers so I can cut it the same way and pot up the wayward sucker and give it away.

Now my Rosa Rugosa and Rosa Rugosa Alba sucker like crazy.

Hmmm, that's interesting to know. I always thought the once bloomers were the main ones that suckered, but it sounds like I need to be careful about the Hybrid Perpetuals and other OGRs. I have another situation in one of my old beds where something sent rampant suckers everywhere over the past few years. That's a more tricky detective problem for me. I have to find the photos before I pose that question for folks.

in the meantime, I'll be cautious and vigilant around my Marchesa Boccella. She's worth it and she's in an area I can police a little better. For rugosas, I don't have much luck with my alkaline soil beyond Mrs. Anthony Waterer and the exquisite Linda Campbell. Neither has suckered for me but I appreciate the heads up to watch for them.

Cynthia

My Yolande has not suckered.

Yolande and Marchessa have never suckered here. The worst suckerers in my garden are Shailer's Provence and Ruth's German Rose. Both are beautiful but they want to take over and will take over. I managed to dig out Ruth's German and now have it in a pot. Shailer's won't go. Cardinal de Richelieu and Charles de Mills sucker but not nearly as much. Oh, Duchesse de Buccleugh is bad.

Wow, that's interesting - I presumed they'd be more likely to sucker in warmer climates. Were yours grafted or own root, Sheila and Erasmus? Maybe those suckers in the path were Duchesse reaching for world domination. There's nothing else in that bed likely to have caused that much territory expansion so I'm still blaming Duchesse.

You mean there's a worse rose at suckering than Charles de Mills? From what I hear that's hard to accomplish. I have learned to steer clear of him. Cardinal de Richelieu suckers too? Maybe he was the thug in my other bed, but he was too recently planted to be the thug in my OGR bed. Shailer's Province doesn't survive well here so I think I'm safe here.

Thanks for the input.

Cynthia

My Yolande and Marchessa B are own root. I don't think I've ever had a hybrid perpetual sucker. Duchesse de Rohan seems more likely to sucker. Mine's in a pot.

Charles de Mills suckers a bit here but nothing like Shailer's, which can sucker many feet in either direction and the suckers quickly grow about 6 ' tall. I have tried to keep it in bounds . There's no eradicating it. Ruth's German is a bad suckerer but I dug it out with some help and now grow it in a pot. If I had acreage I'd be happy with both as they're beautiful , and fragrant.

I have a HP that's supposedly "Indigo" and for sure that thing has plans to take over the bed it's in. Other than that, my only other suckering rose so far is High Country Banshee, a once bloomer.

I didn't know Indigo was a hybrid perpetual. HMF has it as a Damask Perpetual. Maybe that's still a perpetual. Or it's a Portland. ANyway mine is also a bad suckerer - I forgot about it. It has intertwined suckers with Tuscany Superb. I can't take cuttings unless they're in bloom as I can't tell the canes apart. Forgot about Banshee...very bad suckerer. People are lucky who don't have to worry about space.

Aha, those last rounds of comments help. So I don't necessarily have to be cautious about Hybrid Perpetuals as a group, just if they're also listed as Damask Perpetual or Gallica heritage. That makes sense.

I just need to read the fine print on hmf - what a wonderful rose resource it is! If you don't already have a premium membership please consider supporting them. We can't lose that critical source of rose information.

I really appreciate the input about other suckering roses. I used to have Indigo and thought about replacing it. Perhaps the Indigo that died years ago was the source of the nasty 12' suckering canes I found all over another bed that didn't match any roses currently growing in the bed. Scary thought that a rose several years dead left a time bomb of suckers (if indeed that's the case). I had Tuscany Superb in a different bed that I thought I'd be free to let sucker but I don't think I'll replant her as gorgeous as she was. Too many lovely Barden Gallica and Moss roses that don't sucker too much that'll be the center of my once-bloomer section.

Wonderful input - thanks

Cynthia

Oh I see, my mistake!

Yes it's a luxury to not have to worry about space for sure. This year (year 4) High Country Banshee has really exploded with growth and sent up several canes getting farther and farther from the base of the plant. It's in a corner that it will certainly claim ownership of, and I will have to wrangle it every year to be able to be anywhere near Sidonie which is its neighbor just down the pathway. Also in that same space is Ispahan which is getting bigger in all directions every year... 😬 But all I have are narrow beds because of the space of my yard, so what's a girl to do? I only have loving eyes for the monster roses, it seems.

Idk if you can see the stone pathway that's always being swallowed up by the plants. Purple is Alchemist, red is Ispahan, yellow is HC Banshee, green is Sidonie.

Save Sidonie if you can! She's such an exuberant bloomer and smells divine She's probably my favority OGR and at least in my top 20 if not higher of all roses.

Cynthia

My Yolande is own root, Cynthia.

Cynthia, Sidonie is fine! It's just a matter of me being able to get to it that is the problem lol. But yes I agree it's quite beautiful and fragrant. It doesn't last long in the vase, but when I cut it, it perfumes the whole room for about 3 days.

Magpie, what is your opinion of High Country Banshee? is it drought tolerant? i’m actually interested in growing a suckering rose.

Nose, I love mine and I will never remove it. I don't know if it's drought tolerant though, mine is situated in one of the better parts of my yard and right next to a sprinkler head. It has been kind of a slow grower, putting out maybe one long, whiplike cane a year until this year (year 4) when it has begun to fill out a bit more. I don't know how it would do as a free standing bush, mine is being tied against a fence. It's quite flexible and easy to manipulate, albeit thorny. But anyway the flowers are beautiful, the scent is lovely and the larger it's gotten with more flowers, the more noticeable the scent of course. For me the foliage is also lovely and perfectly healthy but my climate helps that a lot. Little bees love the flowers. And it makes nice orange hips. It's one of my earlier bloomers. Unfortunately the squirrels ate almost all of the blooms this year, so I don't have good photos :( A once-bloomer, btw.

Thanks for the info, Magpie! it sure is lovely.

Your Banshee is prettier than mine, Magpie. I wonder where High Country got theirs. According to HMF there are six or seven versions of Banshee out there. Many of the pics on hmf show a bloom with fewer petals than yours. I think one of the distinguishing characteristics is that it has long sepals. Mine has small leaves and canes age to brownish.

Nathalie's High Hills from Vintage, another suckerer but not excessively

It's very fragrant.

I just noticed on hmf that there is a separate listing for " High Country Banshee". It does look like it could be a different rose. But certainly beautiful.

I sometimes have roses Whose canes get covered by dirt and root themselves. It looks like they are spreading but actually They are just self rooting.

Except for the rugosas (which Therese Bugnet's runners can be more than ten feet away from the mother plant, OMG), the Duchess of Portland sucked like crazy. I guess they like sandy soil with regular water. After I moved DoP to the non-irrigated slope, though it still produces suckers, but nothing that serious. I hadn't noticed that Ispahan would also sucker until Magpie pointed it out. Mine has to compete with the roots of a mature dogwood tree, and I remove half the old stems every year, so it's not that noticeable.

Thanks for the tips everyone! Sounds like Banshee under any name is one to avoid if I don't want to deal with suckers. I agree that new plants can root from pegging when canes get covered with soil Vaporvac and I've often tried to get roses to do this. As long as they form a thicket politely and keep their fingers out of other roses' pies, I'm happy with that. It's the rampant 10' away suckers I'm really trying to avoid

Thanks for the list of other offenders Feiy. I don't think my Therese Bugnet sent out suckers that far but she did occupy a huge area of prime rose space for a pretty minimum spell of blooms. She's one I'm not even considering replacing. Any rose with suckering potentials - like Ispahan if I can find it - gets space in my crappiest soil competing with a very large oak tree in part sun. The spring bloomers can benefit from the sun before the tree leafs out then the hydrangeas and such can take it from there. I'm trying to mostly plant Barden OGR type roses there because a) they're beautiful and b) they don't mostly sucker very far.

Cynthia

I sometimes peg my Ispahan and got some self-rooted plants. I transplanted three of them to the slope and they're all doing well. One of them even bloomed this year! I think sucker roses are more drought tolerant since they seem to be good at finding water.

My neighbors planted their Hansas on a sunny slope, get no watering at all, and don't have nearly as many suckers as mine.

Oh, Common Moss also suckers a lot. When we renovated the yard four years ago, we dug up two of the previous owner's plants and gave them to a neighbor, but some of the deeper roots still kept producing new plants. I moved some to the slope but can still "harvest" at least two new plants every year. Its vitality is really tenacious. It's another good candidate if you have a tough spot to fill.

I loved Therese Bugnet at my last garden but she did have a contained run where she couldn’t escape and the focus was more on her foilage and red canes. I kind of want her again but realistically have no place for her in my current garden and and my contained spot for suckering roses is already jam packed.

This has been a great thread - I’ve already rearranged a few planned beds because of comments here 😊

I have Kakwa, which suckers so much I am going to have to remove it, as my garden is very small.

Hmm, never heard of Kakwa, but thanks for the tip to give it a wide berth! I don't mind a rose that "oozes" a bit but stays in line. Suckering anything more than a few inches from the base however is problematic. Thanks for the input everyone!

Cynthia

Well, it is a good rose, except for a rather short, but very early, season of bloom. It would do best in a large naturalistic garden. I am considering trying to keep one sucker in one of those self pruning air pots. It is a spinosissima type, probably close to Altaica (from central Asia?). I am very romantic and I adore ferny-leaved Scots-type roses --- in theory, anyway. Need to go to Scotland, I guess.

Kakwa was known in Alaska and Canada. Very hardy.

The name refers to a provincial park in Canada with a beautiful waterfall. Not my photo.

Wow, gorgeous waterfall in the park! I looked up Kakwa on HMF and it looks like a prolific bloomer in its spring bloom. There is a photo of a very compact rounded bush of Kakwa, but it was in a botanical garden and maybe that took a team of gardeners to keep in line.

The idea of growing suckering roses in pots is probably wise. Paul Barden advised me once when considering an unknown Gallica to plant it in a bottomless garbage can fully buried in the ground. Given how some roses sucker though I think some could escape out the bottom eventually. I sure learned that lesson with some horseradish planted in a pot that had a hole in the bottom big enough for a finger to sneak out and go hog-wild in good soil.

Cynthia

I remember reading something in rose book author Carolyn Parker's rose blog, that she had kept two plants of common moss in pots for over twenty years, which gave me hope.

Most aggressive in suckering:

Any rugosa on its own roots

Some gallicas, same