my next door neighbor planted a tree rose about 5 or 6 yrs ago, peace I think, watered it a few times and that was it. He did prop it up. I dead headed it after the first couple of blooms and it got a lot of water from me watering my stuff. Then I got the impression my involvement was not appreciated so it has had no water for about 3 years except for rain. I thought this summer had finished it, but it still show life in the last few weeks. So I asked the owner if I could prune it and take care of it.
There was a branch stump coming off the base (can't figure out why the grower would leave that) which regularly sent out lots of suckers which they did lop off eventually, but i found they had taken root and formed a whole new bush which had a 1" tap root a few inches from the main plant. Getting all that out was quite a task. That wood is really hard. That is some tough rootstock. I cut the new bush off and got a couple of inches of its root. I am afraid to go too far down as I might damage the roots of the main plant. What should I do with it?
I got as much of the offshoot as I could but it seems to have a root that branches off the main root as its root seems to be part of the main stalk.
the picture shows the off-shoot stump and the new bush root stump. Will these continue to send out suckers? What can I do with them?
I trimmed out the dead wood and some of the branches that had bloomed. Is this a good time to prune? How far should I go? I'm thinking to just lop off that tall branch to round off the profile. I hope the picture is sufficient.
It responded to a deep soaking a few days ago with quite a few new shoots and blooms which are a miniature of what they were the first year. Hoping it will become the phenomenal display it should be.
