Remove anything below the graft union.

Let's see what you have to work with when the root throws off suckers this spring. If they are small you'll need to wait until they build some girth and strength; otherwise it's just so easy to cut right through them. The first thing I learned to do was cleft grafting, and it's still a go-to for me. It works for a broad range of scion-rootstock size discrepancies. I mean you can have a scion matched with a rootstock the same size or many times larger. But if the sizes of the two are close do a whip or whip and tongue if you like. And I really like the way those meld. Sometimes I fall back on a chip. You can place a chip from a pencil-sized budstick on a stick the size of your thumb without much trouble, and you can do it whether the bark is slipping or not, and regardless of whether the wood is supple and splitting readily. Bark grafting is very, very doable, but I've had a few instances where the branch didn't seem to want to grow over the splice well, and the connection seems a little tenuous. But I have a link to a very good tutorial that will get you going on it. Konrad does a super tidy and precise graft that he has pictures of, too. I don't have the link at hand but he'll provide it, I'm sure, if you ask. Those are all spring grafts. In late summer/early fall you can do chipping and budding. These are designed to heal over in the current year and then emerge the following season. So I don't have an exact answer to your question. I do, however, have a caveat, and that is that I don't know as much about what I'm talking about as it sounds like. There are a number of others who frequent this site who do more, and better, grafting in a few hours time than I've done in my entire life. I'm closer to being a newbie than they are, though, so maybe my experience at learning all these things is worth sharing. Some of the things I try to explain are the ones that I've stumbled over while learning. Good luck! Here is a link that might be useful: Joe Real bark grafting link

I do grow an R. Laxa and it likes the sandy loam it's in. If the Gallicinae that I had from Pickering are any guide, laxa also likes the heavier clays. I don't think I've got the laxa rootstock growing on its own. My guess would be that laxa rootstock accepts buds of this group better than some other rootstocks. Or it could be that the growers just prefer it for those. Sometime y'all might want to read some of the rose books that are on Google Books. Back in the 1800s, there was a lot of concern about matching roses to the optimum rootstocks. Recently I found a symposium (actually part 2 of a symposium) in which there was a discussion of what rootstocks worked better in New England. Hovey was a major name and it was a good read ...you'd feel comfortable because it was a bunch of rose people, sitting around, talking roses, a century and a half ago. Googling "Transactions Massachusetts Horticultural Society" 187* and Hovey and Roses and rootstock should turn it up.

You should have a pretty "new" plant from your newly forming canes. I urge you in the future to bury the graft at least several inches below ground--to protect it during the winter. In fact, some northern gardeners bury the graft 4-6 inches below ground level--just to be safe. If the graft suffers winter damage, it is all over for your rose. We'd like to see pics when your rose finally blooms. : ) Kate