Hey, thanks for the replies! Yes, the sucker on the right/front of the tree gets fruit - not the 1/2" purple crabapple fruit like the rest of the tree but a 3" old fashioned/wild apple kinda fruit. The sucker on the left/back of the tree is the same crabapple as the main tree - honestly I'd never thought of it as a sucker before, just part of the tree. To remove the old-timey apple sucker would only remove one tall piece, it doesn't have any branches coming off it.It's like a combo sucker/waterspout (is that the right term?) The other, bigger "sucker" is half the tree and I wouldn't remove it without carefully considering how it would look, or if it might kill the tree. Much to my surprise my reading says the best time to cut out suckers and waterspouts is right after blooming - true? Also, most everything I've read says cutting out one sucker can lead to many more - but I guess they're easier to take care of if I do it as soon a s I see them... Whaas, where did you cut your suckers? I shouldn't go beneath the soil line, right? btw, the tree bark on the main tree looked smooth too until the tree reached a certain age. toronado3800, I'll never move from here, the tree is in a side yard in the middle of my patio. The look of the sucker's bloom, etc actually pleases me and I don't want to remove it unless it is weakening the tree - my reading says suckers do, but I haven't read why yet. Is it simply because they are vigorous and use more nutrients than before the tree? I'll try to take another pic from a different angle when I get home from work tonight if it isn't raining (like it is now!) To show how the three trunks are in relation to each other. Thanks again for helping!

I had a couple of double crowns on a few of my plantlets. They ended up having such a strange leaf pattern, at first I thought it was a light issue - until I spotted the double crown... At that point it wasn't a sucker, but more of a Siamese twin issue (or so I explained it to myself). So I took them out of the pot, shook off the dirt, decided where the dividing line would be between the two, and sliced them apart with a sharp blade. That actually gave me a nice cross section of my plant(s). Ever since I've been looking for an illustration of the same thing.... Anyhow, I potted them and they are doing much better now - I can't tell the difference between them, and the other plantlets from the same batch anymore. the article I linked has pictures for the procedure:-D Here is a link that might be useful: Taming the double headed monster

I see the dreaded root rot has occurred at your house. I agree that you may be able to save this plant. When this happens to me, I first remove all the dead and mushy roots, and closely examine the stem. Remove any stem that is brown and mushy, and just keep working your way up the stem until you have green stem. I then place the crown into some nice warm water to re-hydrate it, along with any of the leaves you picked off. I find it helps to take off leaves until you have maybe three rows, so the crown can focus more energy on growing new roots. Scrape any leaf callousses off the stem, place into 1-1-1 mix, and bag it. Bagging, or any method you choose, helps keep the humidity high and the crown hydrated. Keep under bright light but out of direct sun. In a couple of weeks it should have re-rooted. Barbara

Please STOP cutting off all the new canes on your roses! Not all new canes that come up from the base of a rose are suckers nor are they all root stock shoots. First you need to know if your rose is an own root rose. A variety of rose growing only on it's own roots. If that is the case then ALL canes coming up from the bottom are your rose and are not suckers or root stock. A grafted rose is one variety of rose grafted unto the top of another variety of rose for it's root stock only. The purpose of the grafting is to add extra growing vigor to a variety that may not be as strong of a grower on it's own roots. That is why certain varieties of roses are used as root stocks. They are VERY vigorous growers and will add extra umph to the weaker variety. If you have grafted roses you have to find the where the graft is and then figure out if the new cane is coming from above or below that graft. If the cane is above the graft knot then it is NOT a sucker but a new cane of the variety you want. If the cane is from below or beneath the graft then it is most probably the root stock coming up and should be removed at it's source, destroying the growth node in the process to prevent resprouting. If you live in a cold zone and you plant your grafts below ground for wintering purposes then you need to uncover the graft and find out where that cane is coming from before you remove it. Funrose, on your first picture I do not see any suckers on that plant at all! They all look like your rose and your rose looks very happy, healthy and growing and blooming well. Leave it alone! On the second set of pictures it's harder to tell where the graft is but I'm thinking that you may have cut off perfectly healthy new rose growth from your rose and not root stock coming up. Next time let them grow out some. You will easily be able to tell that there is a difference in the appearance of regular new rose canes and the root stock canes which will tend to be sort of spindly and the leaves will look very different. And not all roses have only 3 or 5 leaf sets. There are some roses that will occasionally have 7 leaf sets. So you can't just go by that. Roses do not grow just from one cane or trunk like a tree. They grow from several points. Most grafted roses will have several points where the wanted variety has been grafted to the root stock variety. So they also grow from more than one point on the graft. I have roses that have 6 to 8 canes coming up from the graft. All of which are the correct variety and not root stock.