Maybe 12 years ago, I wrote the article linked below. The 3. at the end is a foornote to the 3 after susceptibility. George Mander "has made arrangements with a wholesale rosegrower, Jan Verschuren, to graft his budwood on R. canina. Jan prefers R. canina currently. R. canina is what was used there before WW2. The original canina was notorious for suckering. There are new canina selections since then. R. canina cv. "Inermis" is the most widely used variety. Much less suckering takes place, but it still suckers. R. canina cv."Heinsohn's Rekord" is regarded as the very best for Hybrid Teas (Jan agrees out of experience). R. corymbifera cv. "Laxa" or R. dumetorum cv. "Laxa" is more and more being grown on Europe's mainland. It was always used as a rootstock for Great Britain only. Because it suckers little and is, therefore, a cheaper way of growing roses, the mainland now also grows more and more on Laxa. However, Laxa is not as winterhardy as R. canina. For treeroses, R. canina cv. "Pfander" is the best one (his family has a well established R. canina cv."Pfander" weeping treerose of The Fairy in their garden at home surviving at some -24 degrees C unprotected, its budunion up in the air). Cheap fast production for big box stores has opened a market for multiflora cutting rootstocks for treeroses in Holland, but they have little winterhardiness. He also points out that R. multiflora is softer and the grafts a little more likely to be weak during the first year (Brad had one of George's Canadian White Star break right at the bud union; it can happen in a strong wind). Multiflora is much faster in production, but has a shorter lifespan than canina. Brad's experience is roses grafted on R. canina suckered freely and didn't produce as many basal shoots as R. multiflora or own-root roses. However, Jan points out that multiflora was shipped to Sweden because they had guaranteed snow cover in their winters. All other parts never wanted multiflora because of its frost susceptibility 3. Obviously, there is great debate going on here concerning the relative merits of various rootstocks." "3. This has always been a hot topic for Jan. Another former local grower here lost his crop on multiflora when temperatures went down to minus 24 degrees C. "I should have put more straw on" was his thinking... Jan hills up his budunions in fall and sleeps easy, even with minus 24. In his opinion, multiflora is never as winterhardy as R. canina selections are. As his father mentioned when he said to him that all growers use multiflora in Canada. " What?! Are they backward there?" The name Verschuren is closely related to rosegrowing in Holland. They are rootstock specialists. They produce seed, stratify and produce rootstock (about 6,000,000/ yr); and are only a medium size rootstock grower! Combined with Germany and the huge rosegrowers, competition is immense. Out of the competition, the best emerges because of the scale in which things are done there. The scales are different in Canada: here, rose production is done on a hobbyfarm basis. Multiflora is easy to grow; that is why it is used here; that is Jan's conclusion. When he met Otto Palleck, the just retired Ontario rosegrower, Palleck said, "What? You grow on canina? That is the best rootstock there is, but we cannot get No.1 quality here...." That was most likely not his only problem, as seed germination with canina requires 2 years of stratifying. Brian Minter told Jan initially when he started out doubtfully here with canina rootstock, "Do the best you can and grow the best product possible, and you will succeed" Now, Jan has customers who are coming back raving to buy more. His treeroses did not blink their eyes at the cold last winter." Here is a link that might be useful: A Visit with B.C. Rosemen

Those little suckers are sprouts off the roots of the rootstock portion of the tree rose. Tree roses generally have three portions grafted together: one for the roots, one for the trunk, and then the top growth which is the flowering rose you bought it as. You should keep the root suckers pulled off. If you can separate them with roots you can definitely use them as root stock for your own grafting, but I would think you'd have to dig down to the source of the sucker and cut off the root that sprouted it. Or you could let them grow a couple years and then take cuttings of them and root those and then use those for grafting. But that would not be good for your rose tree to leave them on like that. You can always buy rootstocks for grafting onto, rather than sacrificing a rose that you like for its rootstock.

Suckers are shoots that grow from the rootstock rather than from the named variety which has been grafted onto it. If nothing is done then the suckers will take over the plant completely and you will have a bush that has reverted. You can tell if it is a sucker if you see that it is coming from below the bud union and by the different leaf form and color. Don't go by the number of leaflets as a guide. Try to pull the sucker off rather than cutting it as cutting stimulates growth again. Pulling if off causes the wound to make a callous and heal over.

Being a Grandiflora or Hybrid Tea has nothing to do with whether or not they sucker. It has to do with what type of root system they have. Most modern roses are grafted on to a root stock to make them grow bigger, faster. It's that vigorous root stock that is sending up suckers. You need to get rid of those suckers as soon as you see them to protect your rose. If allowed to grow the root stock can take over and kill the grafted variety off. don't just cut the sucker off at ground level. You need to dig down to where it's coming from the roots and tear it off. This should damage the node so it doesn't grow back again in that spot. Own root roses, which many Old Garden Roses are, can sucker because they are not grafted and the roots will send out new shoots if it can. There is a bigger push now days for more types of roses to be grown on their own roots but if they are the seller will note this in their advertising. If it doesn't say own root then it's grafted. Most packaged roses and a lot of what is available at big box stores are grafted because they're cheaper to grow so they can sell them as those low prices. Own root plants are more expensive to produce so the seller will note that they are own root as a selling point. They're usually smaller plants and more expensive too. Without seeing your plants or knowing what roses they are it's hard to say what is happening but to me it sounds like root stock coming up.