Question
I have a climbing rose bush that I planted about 7 or 8 years ago.  Every year I have tons of blooms and everything is good.  This year, it looked like it was going to bloom - had tons of little tine buds on it.....now that they've bloomed........they don't look like roses at all.  They are little tiny white flowers.  There's lots of them.  I think the bush is ok, except, these are not the same flowers I've had every year.  I'm wondering what happen.  Is it possible that the bush has gone wild?  It certainly has grown a lot.....it's wrapped itself around a six foot section of fence.  Can I save it?  Can it be fixed or do I need to cut it back (waaaayyyy back)?

Answer
Hi Susan-

Well - it could be two things.  If you live in a cold part of the country, and if during the winter the cold killed the rose to the ground, but the rose threw up canes from the rootstock in the spring - its possible the rose above the graft died, and the root stock took over.  The rootstock could be Fortuniana (a common rootstock) which has tiny white flowers, and one spring bloom.  It is a good rose in its own right, and is sold on the Antique Rose Emporium website.  It was discovered in China and is very drought tolerant.

However, if the above scenario doesn't fit you, then the rose could have spontaneously mutated.  The mutation could be just on the ends of the branches for instance, and by cutting it way back, you could cut off the mutation (which is a sport).....you could try it, and time will tell, maybe the rose will go back to what it was before.

Good luck-

Carlene