By Markrose64
Hampshire,
United Kingdom 
Could you tell me if this shoot is a sucker or not. Its kinda hard to tell, but it seemingly appeared out of nowhere! This shoot has 7 leaflets, but unfortunately so does the rose bush (floribunda, rhapsody in blue) Leaflets are similar in shape to orig rose bush, but lighter in colour, and stem is pink (white beneathh soli level. Its coming from the rootstock, but very hard to tell whether below bud union or not. Help appreciated. If i leave it to see whether it buds, how much damage would it do if it was a sucker/what would be symptoms on rose bush??
Thank you,
Mark
13 May, 2011
Answers
Thanks Bamboo, it's already taller than the bush, so i dont think ill be leaving it on for long....i have over 100 buds on this bush, and theyll be needing every morsel of energy they can get!
14 May, 2011
Could be a sucker, but as you say, at this stage hard to tell - leave it a week or so - if its a sucker, it'll grow at a rate of knots and be much taller than the rest of the bush, at which point you can remove it at the base.
13 May, 2011