I planted a lot of rosa rugosa alba 2-year-old plants to make a hedge a
little late in the year. Eventually, _many_ weeks later and probably
encouraged by a belated extensive watering program they started to show signs
of life and there are many new shoots emerging. What is odd is that in every
case the shoots are coming not from the stem that was visible above ground
all along, but elsewhere in the root system. Some have more than one such
shoot visible. I know from other rose lore that suckers occur regularly so
this form of growth is not exactly unheard of.

I recently went back and looked at a place I lived in previously where I had
panted some regular rose rugosas several years ago. In each case, there were
several separate stems coming from the ground, presumably all from the one
root system in each case.

This is how perennials spread but I suppose many roses could spread in
exactly the same way. I'm just thinking aloud, but wondering how many other
shrub/species roses do this. I'm all for it as it means a hedge can become
denser at the base from new low growth, so its definitely a good thing...
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