ID on thorny plant

8 years ago

I am renting a house that once had an impressive garden that I am trying to revive. This thorny plant has a prominent place in a flower bed in the front yard and is much bigger than everything else there. Please help me figure out what it is and if I should keep it!

The plant is 2-3 feet tall with several long, bendy branches covered in thorns. It has not bloomed but I see signs of buds. I am in Zone 7 in the DC metro area.

Featured Answer

NHBabs z4b-5a NH

8 years ago

last modified: 8 years ago

When it starts blooming you can post the photo on the Name that Rose forum to get an ID. It may be a rootstock rose if the garden has been neglected for long enough, but it may be something you like. It looks like it might want a trellis to keep it from grabbing folks as they walk by.

For advice on growth patterns and pruning, I'd ask on one of the several rose forums. If you wait until it blooms, you may get better advice since they will have more info to go on as to how to treat it. Not all roses are dense and bushy, but this one looks healthy, and may be a climber.

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Comments (10)

dbarron
8 years ago
Err, have you never seen a rose before ?
mindshift
8 years ago
It looks like a rose to me also. If it's budding, just wait to see.
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l_a_s
Original Author
8 years ago
Thanks! My first guess was a rose as well, because of the thorns, but it's so weird and droopy looking I wasn't sure. Plus I've been actively gardening for all of three weeks so I don't exactly have a lot of experience :)

Any advice on how I can make it look more like a normal rose?
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mindshift
8 years ago
Since you are a newbie to gardening I highly recommend you look up articles on unfamiliar plants in your garden. There are, I think, 35 classes of rose based on heredity and growth. Not all experts agree as to which roses belong in which class, but here is one author's ARTICLE.

The term NHBabs used, "rootstock rose," refers to growth that is coming from below the graft. Named roses are most often cuttings grafted to hardy rootstocks. Sometimes the rootstock is prone to suckering, and sometimes it suckers due to the death or injury of the grafted top. If your rose is one of these, that doesn't make it useless, but it might make it wrong for that spot. You need an upright grower, not a rambler covering the nearby perennials. You can prune for an upright shape, cutting off long, arching stems. If you wait until the buds open you will have cut flowers.
l_a_s thanked mindshift
ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
8 years ago
looks like a nice tree line behind ... and it might be leaning out towards more light ...

also .. many fancy roses.. are grafted ... and if the garden was neglected for long... this MIGHT be an inferior flowered understock ...

we just have to wait for the flowers ... and with tens of thousands of cultivar names .... you may need one of the rose forums for an ID ...

ken
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l_a_s thanked ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
hoovb zone 9 sunset 23
8 years ago
The two common rootstock roses in the US (outside of Florida) are 'Dr. Huey' and Rosa multiflora. The foliage is definitely not 'Dr. Huey', but it might be R. multiflora. I'm not familiar enough to id multiflora but it does resemble that. It will bloom with small white flowers if multiflora--you can search on that name and find plenty of photos.

If it turns out to be R. multiflora I'd advise you to dig it out, if you have permission from your landlord to do so.
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l_a_s thanked hoovb zone 9 sunset 23
l_a_s
Original Author
8 years ago
Thanks for all the thoughtful comments, everyone! As you suggest, I will try to exercise some patience and wait for it to bloom, then see if I can get an ID from the rose forums.
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NHBabs z4b-5a NH
8 years ago
last modified: 8 years ago
Just so you know, the reason to remove multiflora rose is that it's invasive in the scientific sense. The birds eat the rose hips and then poop them out with a dose of fertilizer into areas that aren't cared for, from vacant lots to old fields to road margins, and they grow and spread from there. Rehabbing a field with multiflora rose is a real headache and requires heavy equipment since the roots are huge.

It's easy to ID since it has clusters of small white roses that carry a traditional rose scent.
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ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
8 years ago
the reason to remove multiflora

==>>> the other reason .. is that it can become a giant ugly bush .. with a rather small short bloom period.. with minimalist ugly flowers .... which its only purpose to to procreate itself ...

but if that were the case.. you would have told us about removing the 8 cubic feet of dead wood .. lol ...

do let us know.. or give us a shot at naming it.. when the time comes.. i was just offering alternation info sources should we be stumped ...

ken
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