There are some surprises for me here among the roses listed as suckerers: I always thought of the warm climate roses as little given to suckering. I believe that all the once-blooming old roses sucker more or less: Gallicas, Albas, Centifolias, Mosses, Damasks. The natural growth habit of Gallicas is multiple canes coming out of the ground in a thicket, unlike Teas which part from a single point at ground level, at least such has been my experience. The others generally sucker slowly and sparingly. Hybrid close relatives of the once-blooming old roses sucker too, like the Portlands and at least some of the Hybrid Perpetuals. R. foetida suckers. It's a natural habit for a lot of roses. How far suckers travel from the base of the plant, how many suckers it makes, depend on the variety, the vigor of the plant, and perhaps the soil as well: doesn't clay soil slow down suckering? About your mystery rose, do you remember anything about what the leaves, thorns, and any hips were like? Albas often have a blueish or grayish foliage, for example; many Damasks have a soft-looking, lettuce green foliage, and tubular hips. And how about the scent? Melissa This post was edited by melissa_thefarm on Fri, Apr 19, 13 at 0:45

Many roses sold in the US are grafted onto another rose used as rootstock. The most common rootstock used here is a once-blooming climber names Dr. Huey. It has red blooms, and you'll see them all over. Say you buy a grafted Tiffany. If the grafted rose starts to sucker, that means that Dr. Huey has started actively growing. It will send up canes and eventually grow and kill off the grafted variety (your Tiffany). Instead of pink Tiff,you get dark red Huey. Not good. So, you have to dig down and remove the suckers as soon as you see them, otherwise, you'll end up with a nice plant of the Dr. If your rose is own-root, then suckers are OK and don't have to be removed, because they are new canes of your wanted plant. Some roses are vigorous, and suckers are removed to try to contain the rose at a certain size. Most roses sold at local garden centers are grafted on Dr. Huey rootstock. Some may be own-root, it is usually noted on the tag. For online vendors, they usually tell you somewhere on the site if they are own-root or grafted. If not, then ask.

First question: Can you save the hemlocks? I'm close to the Smokey Moutains where the adelgids remain a problem and there is an active effort to save the hemlocks with beetles that eat the adelgids. (IIRC it costs $3 each to raise a beetle, but to save five mature hemlocks, that would be one dinner out...if you could find a source.) About the suckers, I'd leave them to mature for a couple of more months. Then I'd put a shovel down near where you think the sucker snuck under ground and see if the sucker wilts in five days or not. Then dig it up and see if the roots are there or not and if the stem is woody. I've also got spinosissima suckers in a red clay and I'm letting them mature to two stems before I move them. (In part, I'm lazy, and in part, I want the plants to be stronger before I rip them from their clay and I know I'll damage/destroy the feeder roots when I dig them from that clay. I'd be more agressive if they were in better soil.)

Tracy, where in the "United States" do you live, per your profile? You're discussing South American species and roses in the Andes as if that's where you are. Silk Floss trees grow readily here in Southern California and sometimes self seed, particularly in potted plants where they find more fertile soil and better water. The "Rosa Mosqueta" you discuss is Rubiginosa, the British Sweet Briar. It is an introduced plant in the Andes where it has naturalized. Reg is correct. While there are members of Rosaceae Family in the Southern Hemisphere, "roses" do not occur naturally outside the Northern Hemisphere. All roses enjoyed in South America, South Africa and other Southern Hemisphere countries are there because someone took them there. I'm guessing once a detailed look is taken at the "sucker" in your plant, it's going to be determined to be a volunteer seedling of some tree. There aren't rose species nor hybrids which present themselves as this one has been reported, even under extreme conditions. Attempting to produce commercial roses on other types of plants, even though they may belong to the same Family, is too hit and miss and usually fail. Even Luther Burbank, who practiced "Island of Dr. Moreau" gardening, had limited success with such experiments. Kim Here is a link that might be useful: R. Rubiginosa on Wikipedia