Budded cultivars can live quite a long time.

When I used to give tours of the gardens at Hearst Castle I used to point out a budded specimen of, 'Charlotte Armstrong', that was thriving there and thought to be well over 50 years old.

I'm sure I've seen undocumented specimens much older yet.

One nice thing about living in a cold zone is that the grafted roses really need to be planted with the bud union 2" or more below grade. I have Hybrid Teas which have gone own root and now cover a substantial area. Occassionally, I have one where the root-stock has tried to overwhelm the grafted cultivar, and certainly there are a surprising number of Dr. Hueys in London, ON, but I wouldn't worry about that. Even if the root-stock does send up a cane or two, rip them off (don't prune them) below grade. They won't bother you.
Steve.

There is no limit to the life expectancy of a grafted rose.
Because the root stock is is especially vigorous it will keep attempting to send out suckers which will take nutrients from the grafted variety and eventually cause it to die unless the suckers are regularly removed. Some will never sucker.
They seem to do so when stressed such as very cold temperatures that kill the graft, drought conditions, and just poor care of the bush in general.
When stressed the root stock tries to live and does so by suckering. This causes increased stress on the grafted variety, hastening its demise. Nutrients and moisture will always travel the easiest route which is the root stock. The graft is a slight resistance barrier. Any stress will increase the resistance and stimulate root stock suckering causing nutrients/moisture to feed this natural sucker growth.
Good growing conditions keeps the graft strong allowing moisture and nutrients to flow freely.
Cheap plants haven't had all or most of the growth buds removed from the root stock. These buds will sucker readily even without being stressed.

You see why buying plants from reliable sources and paying the higher prices for quality product pays off in the long run? All this extra care when the plant is grafted is labor intensive and costs money.
This is what we mean when we say "you get what you pay for."

My garden is my hobby. I realize when I'm gone most likely it will be drastically cut back or completely eliminated as few will want to spend the time and effort or have the passion to keep things as they are.
Therefore I don't worry about things living on long after I'm gone. If they do, great, if not, that's life. I'd like to think I'll be remembered for what I did with my life more than for the roses I grew.
Ocassionally, I'll meet someone from the area I lived prior to moving here. When they realize who I am, they say, "You're the guy who lived in that house with all the roses and had that sign in the winter that said, 'Sh-h-h-h Roses Sleeping?'" They say they miss the roses but they remember me and will long after they forget about the roses.
If you really want your roses to survive, let them go own root or buy them as own root plants. They'll never sucker a different variety and they'll more likely live on under less than ideal conditions.

"Sh-h-h-h Roses Sleeping" . . . Karl, that is sooo cute. I LOVE it!!!

Debbie

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Oh, Karl, you are sooo cute! And thanks so much for posting these photos. Of course we will never forget you! :-) Sweet dreams as you doze off tonight to dreamland. ZZZZ.....

Debbie

Thanks for the responses. They help a lot with the learning process I'm going through being a noob and all.
Will all roses do just fine on their own roots? And if so why graft in the first place?
Carl, that's quite a winter protection system you have there. You must be quite busy in the fall setting all that up!

James

Not all roses will do well on their own roots. If the rose is a weak grower with limited vigor, then grafting can help give it the extra oomph it needs to produce basils and blooms. For some reason (knock on wood) I've never had a sucker. Probably most of my grafted roses are on Dr. Huey rootstock though and I don't hear too many complaints about suckering on Dr. Huey....If the life expectancy of a rose was predicated only by grafted versus own root then all of my miniatures (which are normally sold own root) would be alive and kicking and all my own root large roses would be thriving after 20 years in the ground. Sorry that's just not the case. Our climate is a harsh one, with frequent freeze and thaw cycles during winter, early and late hard frosts, gale force winds, drought, flood, heavy clay soil, triple digit heat, RRD, the list goes on and on. If I get 20 good years out of a rose which has had to survive all these conditions I consider myself well repaid for my investment. And in the end, Karl has hit the nail on the head. The odds of someone else moving in after I'm gone and wanting to take care of my roses are not good. Plant what you enjoy now and let the future take care of itself.

Well, though not all that old - I have them going on 30 years since purchase and my grandparents also grew roses- moving bushes from home to home over approx 50 of their 65 yrs being married. I don’t believe there is an age limit. The big issue is grafted roses require a little more attention to details when planting. Own root once they are old enough to plant - not necessarily when you get them, can just be planted with no thought. But all grafted roses, you have to make sure the bud union is well buried or you will get suckers. I have never had an issue because - well, I make sure the bud union is buried 3-4” and to protect from cold also - absolute minimum of 2-3” in my zone 7 east coast garden. In my early years of growing roses, our winters were colder and we got more snow and I hilled teas, shrubs, etc and wrapped in burlap/stuffed with pine-tags . Climbers were laid over and covered in soil or well hilled, wrapped and stuffed. And of course after spring frosts, everything has to be unhilled and set right again. However, our winters have warmed so much it isn’t as necessary if you select the right rose for the right location in the garden and hardiness zone. Dr Huey is a very common used rootstock - bred in 1914 and and is extremely vigorous though not particularly fungal resistant but that isn’t of concern when using the rootstock. It is a hybrid of the Wichurana lines named after the German botanist Max Ernst Wichura and produced sometime in the mid 1800s. It is a beautiful rose on its own and they are seen across the country in old graveyards, estates and plantations blooming without any assistance with lots of showy dark red blooms. It’s main down fall is its propensity to black spot but yet it seems to overcome that and come back each year. The strong marketing push to own root is one of a labor shortage, lack of skilled budders, and greed. If you can selling a tiny cutting that at the very most is 32 weeks old (from a grower who gives a 5 year warranty) and the rest are at best 16-20 weeks (with little to no warranty) compared to full 2 year olds that have had a full year in the field and then another year+ in the field with its graft —- and sell for the same price - which do you think corporations will demand are grown to help their bottom lines? Do not be afraid of well grown, healthy, well budded/grafted roses. Grafting has been the primary method of rose production which began in the late 1800s with a beautiful but week growing hybrid tea called LaFrance. Grafting it allowed for a much stronger growing plant and it has survived to this day and you can still purchase it. Many of the beautiful old roses full of fragrance just weren’t all that strong on their own roots. And today they are own rooting roses with little to no warranty that may not last you a year or two. No one has ever tested many of these roses - because everything was grafted and the couple of under-stocks were strong so no issue would be expected. Unless you want a particular rose that you can only find as own root, and if you are a beginner gardener and have just started with roses — look for grafted roses from an old established company like Jackson Perkins or go with David Austin who offers both in various types but they offer 5 year warranties.

Unless they grow own roots, grafted roses can have the graft give out (15 or so years old) and they can die, where own root roses can live 100 years and have.

Sheila:

Any thoughts, as a life sciences person, about mechanism explaining “graft giving out”?

Pam:

How did you come to find this discussion?

karl bapst (above) did touch on my first question.

I remember reading his comments, back when one could review a large cache of old random Rose discussions here. Last time I tried to do that, it was still not possible, despite the Houzz contact person posting that she was “ working on it”.

Is Karl bapst still alive - does anyone know? He had some good comments.

Bad Houzz.

Help Me Find indicates it's been over a year since he last visited the site.He had a small nursery whose domain is now released and available for sale. I hope he's simply found other things to pique his interests and pleasantly occupy his time...

I believe Carl is no longer with us. I think that is what straws Chicago indicated in older posts.

Yes. Using info from the HMF link roseseek provided, I found an obituary from Jan. 2014.

He was an ARS CR. I valued his comments here.

Thank you. When people start dropping out, you begin worrying things happen. As mileage increases, those occurrences become even more frequent. I'm sorry. He was a good guy.

Rifis, I do know grafted roses that up and died after 15 years or so in Alaska, while the own root roses carried on for me for the 33 years there. Now, I am gardening warm for 5 years here and we will see what happens. Maybe it is something like graft versus host disease in humans. I have read about this grafted plant phenomena and the longevity of own root roses in cemeteries especially in California. I realize some roses are stronger growers when grafted, but I'm not sure that makes the graft live any longer. Obviously, some people do not care about length of a plant's life. I do, because I want to see some wild looking old humongous rose plants growing here. I'm not a HT fan normally.