Grafted Rose Autopsies

Rosa 'Easy Going':

'Easy Going' unfortunately preferred growing extremely tall to blooming.  I experimented with hard pruning between flushes, in the hopes of keeping it short.  It preferred to grow tall again before blooming, which doomed it.  'Easy Going' had excellent rust and mildew resistance, and would still be in the ground had it stayed reasonably short, say under six feet (2 meters).  I do not want a 4 meter floribunda. 

'Easy Going' was originally a grafted plant with a 'Dr Huey' root system.  An autopsy revealed that it had own-rooted itself thoroughly, without any root or crown gall.  The remainder of the 'Dr Huey' roots were disappearing as the 'Easy Going' root system thrived.

'Easy Going', with plenty of its own roots:


To allow a grafted rose to "go own-root", plant so that the entire bud union is either just below the surface, or halfway buried.  Some roses easily go own-root, and produce a forest of canes (and a blizzard of flowers).  Some roses simply don't go own root.  This may be a function of the number of dormant bud eyes in the wood--few bud eyes, few opportunities for roots to sprout. 

The Austin rose 'Tamora', orginally grafted, now an own-root thicket of canes that produce a tumult of flowers:
 

'Easy Going' grew so large it became a nursery for birds:
 

Adios, 'Easy'. 

Rosa 'Andre le Notre' aka 'Betty White', in a rare moment of beauty:


'Andre le Notre was a replacement for another rose, 'Abbaye de Cluny', that suffered horribly from Thrips damage.
 'Abbaye de Cluny', the King of Thrips:


'Andre' aka 'Betty' unfortunately suffered from the same problem, though not quite to the same extreme.  Most of my roses are always heavily infested with Thrips.  Some, however, show little or no damage.  The pale-colored flowers of high-centered form, of which 'Andre le Notre' was one, are the most vulnerable to damage.  The best way to prevent Thrips damage is to spray the individual flower buds with a virulent chemical pesticide, which I chose not to do.  Bye bye, 'Andre'.  Bummer.  It was a beauty when it was beautiful, which was rare.

This originally grafted rose was in the process of own-rooting itself as well:

 
Red arrows indicate the 'Andre le Notre' roots sprouting from the bud union.  Purple arrows indicate the original shank where the 'Dr Huey' was grafted with the 'Andre le Notre' budeyes.  The green arrow indicates the bud union, and the blue arrow indicates the 'Dr. Huey' roots, still active.
 


Here's another example of a grafted rose going own-root.  This time the roots are sprouting from one of the canes that came in contact with the ground.  Austin roses, like 'Mary Rose' will often do this: 


So, my conclusions on 'Easy Going' and 'Andre le Notre'.  An autopsy (if you could call it that) revealed neither rose was suffering from a devastating disease like root gall.  They were in adequate locations with sufficient water and nutrients.  Both roses were growing and vigorous. Yet I dug them up, though not without regret.  They did not meet high expectations.   My fault or theirs?  Must fault always be assigned?  I used to think so.  Not so much any more. 

Learn and move on.  That is the way of the gardener, and of the world.