Sounds perfectly normal.

You can cut them off to desired length. I grew my Eden as a shrub rather than a climber for a while. Not as many flowers that way, but if you don't have space, you don't have space.

You could also loop them back upon themselves, tying the tip of the cane to its own base, so that they produce shorter flowering stems along the top and sides of the loop.

Ideally, of course, training the canes horizontally produces the most flowers.

Last year, my new Eden did the same thing. Following advice from this forum, I carefully bent them over and tied them too the upper part of the obelisk. All sorts of buds appeared on the looped over part.

The tall canes are just showing us what its full growth will be like. Eden grows to about 12 ft--which means I shall probably have a bunch of loops arching over the top of my 9 ft obelisk. Pretend it is one of those "umbrella" type obelisks--at least, I intend to.

Kate

I have two Austins doing that. I whacked two canes off one today. Another one may get the same treatment. Where they are planted, I need shrub roses, not wannabe climbers. I don't know why those canes shot up so tall.

If they don't behave, I will move them or give them away and plant something that will do what I want.

One is Wisley, and one is Miss Alice.

One of my Gruss on the east side wants to be a monster, but I am leaving that one alone for now. It is own-root.

This may not be true for you but let me warn you. Whatever the rootstock is on my Eden sends out long canes like this. You have to look carefully to discover that these are from a different rose.

Thanks everyone. Mendocino -the Edens are in multiflora rootstock I believe. The canes in question are much thicker and the leaves much bigger than the others. How would I tell? And what should I do?

Thanks
Joanna

I have just been out angain and inspected the canes. They are truley trunk-like compared to the rest on the bush and they have nine-leaf sets, as opposed to seven-leaf on the rest of the bush. The canes seem to be coming from the graft union itself, not from underground, if that is of any significance.

I have two other Edens next door and they do not have these rogue canes - just even growth.

Thanks
Joanna

My Eden (Pierre de Ronsard; there are other roses called Eden) was purchased as a climber but I grow it as a shrub. After a few years of pruning after a flush is finished and pruning hard in the dormant season, it no longer even tries to be a climber. And it never threw out fifteen foot canes, maybe eight at the most.

Mine is on its own roots.

Rosefolly

It sounds like you have rootstock suckers. You are doing just the right thing: focusing on the plant. The leaves should look very, very different from Eden's leaves. Eden's leaves looks modern, shiny. Multiflora rootstock should have slightly rugose leaves, smaller, and the stipules (look that up in the glossary at HelpMeFind) most likely will be fringed. Eden has smooth stipules. Stipules won't lie in this instance.

In alkali soils, multiflora rootstock is reported to sucker over and over, one of the reasons it is disfavored in certain regions. Once you determine that these canes are rootstock suckers, you must remove them ASAP. Don't cut them. Dig away enough of the soil to find where they leave the base of the plant below the bud union and tear them off. This is a slight risk because you will open a wound, and if there is soil bacteria, your rose is exposed. But leaving the suckers will mean the certain death of Eden, for the rootstock will out-compete with the scion.

There are many kinds of multiflora rootstock, and I'm not familiar with more than a couple. Also, if there's any possibility that the rootstock is something other than multiflora, then the stipules might not be diagnostic. Satisfy yourself that the canes are different - - prickles, leaves, number of leaflets, stipules, leaf color and texture - - before you do sucker removal.

Here is a link that might be useful: Parts of a leaf

berndoodle: thanks for your reply. It's very helpful and I will go inspect again tomorrow.

I have 2 questions: could these canes still be suckers even if they are not coming from below the graft union, but from the point of the union itself?

And secondly, the leaves on these canes are most definately NOT smaller than the rest of the bush - they are gigantic in comparison.

I do have alkaline soil however, so it looks like this may be a real possibility.

Thanks again
Joanna