To keep your roses blooming strongly in summer and through till autumn, there is a quick and easy task you need to be doing, according to a nursery owner and gardening specialist.
The 5-second task that protects roses
According to gardening pro William Mitchell of Sutton Manor Nursery, there is one "dangerous" thing that grows on roses in summer that needs removing – suckers. Suckers steal vital nutrients away from roses and weaken them.
Suckers are frequently found in the summer months and can be "very dangerous". They are growths that appear on trees from the roots. They can be found on a huge range of different plants and are "especially found in the summer months on roses" and tree bases. They often appear after damage to the plant's roots occurs.
Why removing suckers is crucial
William warned, "With roses, the suckers steal vital nutrients away from the plant, which results in weakening it, so they need to be removed as soon as possible." While the flower may still flower with suckers attached, the bloom will often be a pale, single flower, which is very different from what you'd expect.
How to spot and remove suckers
The surest way to tell a sucker from a healthy new stem is to look at its point of origin. If it comes from below the graft, that slightly knobbly join near the base of the plant or from the soil a short distance away, it's almost certainly a sucker.
It is "extremely important" to remove the suckers as close as possible to the point of origin on the roots. If you're certain it's a sucker, remove it by hand rather than cutting it. To ensure that the majority of basal buds are removed, William instructed that you should look to tear as opposed to cutting. This is done to "reduce the chance of regrowth".
Instead, follow the shoot down to its base. You might need to gently ease back the soil to find where it starts. Then grip it as close to the rootstock as possible and pull it away in one firm motion. This should take no more than five seconds. You'll find suckers easiest to remove when the shoot is young. If left too long, it becomes tougher to remove and more likely to return.
