"Last summer I noticed that one of my roses know as "Perfume Delight" was shooting up large leafy canes but was not producing and blooms. Later in the summer that same rose did produce two blooms which were the big characteristic hot pink. I noticed that the canes with no blooms leaves ( smaller, darker green with reddish trim around leafs) looked different than the leaves on the shoot that produced the blooms ( bigger bright green leaves). This year I am noticing the same thing..." You are witnessing the emergence of the rootstock variety that your roses are budded onto. It is almost certainly the dreaded 'Dr. Huey'. I suggest you clear the soil away from the crown of the plant (gently!) and identify where these shoots are coming from and clip them off at the very point where they come off the main stem. If you do this properly, you may stop it from dominating your plants, but the odds are that once it has happened one time, it will happen again. "Dr. Phooey" (as it is sometimes referred to) is a dreadful plant to graft onto since it is almost guaranteed to overrun the scion variety at some point in the life of the plant. There are millions and millions of plants of it across the country to attest to this behavior.

OMG, Christopher! Look at all those red HT roses!! Wonderful pics. Thank you. I love your red roses with purple clematis. (My two favorite colors.) I have yet to acquire Chateau de Clos Vougeot but REALLY want to get one from RVR after I make room in my driveway pot garden, and I would love to grow another Guinee and Don Juan someday. Obviously, I completely grok your dark red rose mania. I currently have Mr. Lincoln, Black Magic, Black Bacarra, Deep Secret, Velvet Fragrance, Nigrette, Barcelona, Black Gold, Dusky Maiden, and Red Pinocchio. A couple of these are total pains, but I pamper them anyway. Lucky little buggers! Carol

Kali, An own root rose can have all cankered/black canes to the ground, but below ground life can, and often does persist. As the weather warms, shoots begin to emerge at ground level. Good, you think, the bush made it, so you think. A couple disheartening things often occur, though. The bush, depending on its age and how healthy it was when it went into the killer winter, is often so weakened by that winter, that the new growth it makes from below ground is very weak. The bush usually just limps along all season to die completely after the following winter. Alternately, in many cases I have had, "dead to the ground roses," regrow from the ground only to wither and shrivel up dead in a couple week's time that same growing season. A grafted rose is a wait and see situation if it appears all the canes above the graft are destroyed. There could still be live scion tissue inside that bud union that will spring forth fresh shoots shortly. You just have to wait and see. If fresh shoots come from below the bud union, emerging from the rootstock, then the new growth is the rootstock's, not the scion's. That bush gets dug out and pitched. If the rose sends out new shoots from the bud union, it should do so by the 4th. of July. I know it's a long wait, but I think it's worth the wait, especially for a beloved, mature bush. Sometimes a rough winter will kill all the canes, but new shoots will come from the bud union. This is good. However, the shock of the severe winter may also send a message to the rootstock to send out rootstock shoots too! You have to watch for suspicious looking growth that comes from below ground on a grafted rose whose canes all die back, but sends out good new shoots from the graft, and shoots from below the graft, from the rootstock. Any rootstock shoots need to be pushed down, not cut out, yes pushed down! If you cut them out, you often leave a piece of stump which will regrow quickly. Dig down with a trowel until you see where the shoot emerges from the rootstock. To detach the shoot, push the shoot down hard exactly where it attaches to the rootstock. It will break away clean, leaving no stump, often tearing a piece of rootstock along with it, that's good. Do not pull the shoot. It will snap and leave a stump which will regrow a new shoot. Hope I hit the target with these explanations. Moses

I think that's from cold weather. Looks like a lot of the leaves on my potted roses that have had a bit of cold weather. I wouldn't worry about it. I could be wrong. But that's my call on it.