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oxboy555

What happens if you remove all canes?

oxboy555
9 years ago

Just curious -- not thinking about doing it but just wondering if an otherwise healthy plant stripped of all canes down to the union will sprout new canes at some point? Or will it die off?

Comments (7)

  • jim1961 / Central Pennsylvania / Zone 6
    9 years ago

    I only grow own root roses and yes they can be cut to the ground and they usually rebound... (At least here they do)

    I'll let someone else tell you about how grafted roses react after being cut to the union...

  • charleney
    9 years ago

    I have bare knuckled a few , and had good success. They were roses that I liked , but could not sorrow if I lost them. Cut canes to budhead and toothbrushed and/or wire-brushed all the old cruddy bark. They survived and did okay!..Someone said "it is pretty hard to kill a rose". I am still not sure of that!

  • buford
    9 years ago

    I've cut many of my grafted roses down to the graft, no existing canes left. A few are pushing out new basals. I'm waiting on the rest.

    For own roots, I've also had to cut down to the 'bulb' on most of my teas. I do see some new growth coming from the root ball, but it's not like a basal, it's just small new growth. So I'm hopeful.

  • Embothrium
    9 years ago

    New canes come from the bud head unless the plant is too weak.

  • roseseek
    9 years ago

    Could be either. If the plant has all the resources necessary to push new growth, including buds to push, or enough resources to remain alive until existing buds can be matured or new growth containing buds is produced, it should regrow. If the plant is so stressed and starved for resources, like an old one can wonder, it will probably die. If it's a budded plant and the actual bud union is removed, you'll likely stimulate growth of the under stock. It may not seem like it, but roses WANT to grow. If there is any way for it to survive, it most often will.

    I've experimented propagating cuttings 'they said' would not root. Supposedly, you can't root the flowering sprays from polys and climbers because they don't contain growth buds. Except, they root the easiest of any cuttings from polys and climbers for me. I rooted one flowering cluster from Annie Laurie McDowell with NO growth buds. It rooted. It lived and it shot up a basal growth from the roots, not from the original cutting. As long as they have the minimum of what they need, they grow. Kim

  • seil zone 6b MI
    9 years ago

    I've seen some pretty horrific pruning jobs that sprang back better than ever. It's like Kim said, if it has the strength it will find a way to grow. I'm seeing many of mine out there that will probably need to be pruned to the graft but I'm not worried yet. Once they're pruned and things really warm up I'm betting most of them will rebound.

  • roseseek
    9 years ago

    That's what I've seen repeatedly for over thirty years, Seil. As long as they're not eaten into or past the bud union, roses attacked by deer and rabbits usually come back too. Add to it Syl Arena's laughing comment years ago about customers wanting long canes with long roots, and he'd go out to the fields, rip a budded plant from the ground, whack it back to the nubs on both top and bottom and it would always explode into growth when planted in his gardens. As long as the plant isn't dried out, frozen beyond resurrection or otherwise too awfully stressed, it will do all it can to make a liar out of you. Just like dogs and kids! Kim

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