What's that, you say?
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| Fasciation on rose bush |
I had something wrong with one of my rose bushes. Something very, very wrong. Something odd. Something that got me worried. I was almost in tears, wondering if this was something that might also affect my other roses. So, I asked the experts on Gardenweb.
And the answer I got back from michaelg was:
"A ribbon-shaped stem (probably formed of multiple stems fusing together) is called fasciation. Branches off a fasciated stem will form abnormal patterns. It is just a birth defect that originated in the growth bud for that stem."
Fasciation! I had heard of fasciation in plants, but never seen it in my garden. I was so relieved that it was not something much worse (or something I had caused!).
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| Thought you might want to see something pretty after that horrifying picture! This is from last summer. |
I did some reading on fasciation in plants, and this is what I found:
It can be caused by damage from weather, insects, or pests. Most of the time it is temporary, but some new varieties of plants have been introduced from fasciated plants. Although it has been known to affect numerous types of plants, it is a fairly rare occurrence.
Whew! That's a relief! I'd hate to see that on my roses again!
But at least from now on I'll know what it is!
Fascinating fasciation - has this ever happened in your garden?
I'm glad it's not something more serious. You have such lovely Roses it would be so sad to have something go through all of them and cause major problems.
ReplyDeleteCher Sunray Gardens
I was so relieved, too, to find out this was just one cane on one rose, and it was easily fixed (by cutting off the cane). I was surprised how upset I got thinking my roses might be in danger! We gardeners really do have a large emotional tie to our gardens.
DeleteI've had it a few times on annual black eyed Susan/gloriosa daisy (Rudbeckia hirta), once even with conjoined twin blooms on the stem. It is bizarre looking. I hope you weren't stressed out about it too long. You said it's sometimes propagated on purpose. I wonder if that's where the celosia comes from that I sometimes see in the garden center looking like that?
ReplyDeleteThat is so interesting. I am going to start looking at my plants a little closer! And yes, I do think celosia is one of the plants that became an introduced variety. Makes you look at it a little bit differently, doesn't it?
DeleteThe photo of the roses with the statue in the background is really pretty. I have seen two trees of different species fused, but I think it is not the same thing as fascination. The tree trunks were growing too close together and eventually grew together. It is fascinating!
ReplyDeleteFasciation looks like several canes fused together, doesn't it? I wonder if the canes somehow grow together before they emerge from the main stem. In that case, it would be very close to your tree trunk example!
Deleteon no, I froze at the fasciation picture, just like watching a horror movie, afraid but can't look away. What a relief to read what it is.
ReplyDeletethank you, I learned something new today :-)
haha - I froze when I saw it on my rose! I didn't want to even touch it! Of course, now that I know what it is, it's not so scary, just - well, fascinating! :)
DeleteWhew is right. I had a rose that had major iron deficiency and the leaves were all heavily veined and I was freaking out. Turned out that it was because it was growing in a large concrete planter! Stupid me! It never occurred to me because my soil is naturally on the acidic side and I'd never seen it! But I totally get the relief. I'd have done the same thing if alien rose canes started coming out of my rose.
ReplyDeleteI've seen iron deficiency, and yes, it does look like something is majorly wrong. We just love our gardens so much - they're like our babies almost - that anything that goes wrong does freak us out a bit. I was really crying - and I thought that was silly, but still I couldn't help it!
DeleteHaven't heard of this, Holley... I even asked George and he hasn't either...Hope we never have that problem... HOWEVER, say a prayer for our yard on Sat. night.. The temps are supposed to go down to about 13 degrees. We have LOTS of spring growth happening now--even with the roses. We may lose alot this weekend. Sigh!
ReplyDeleteHugs,
Betsy
I hope you never have this problem, either. It was shocking to find. 13 degrees does not sound good at all, Betsy. I hope your garden doesn't have any problems because of it. It's supposed to freeze here, but I nothing like that! Early spring/late winter is always worrisome if the weather is not being cooperative.
DeleteEeeww, what a shocker to find on a rose bush, and isn't it great to have such a resource as the Gardenweb forums??
ReplyDeleteI hope Betsy's garden will be fine, although 13 is awfully low. I just checked the weather, and it's supposed to be 32 here Saturday night. :(( I think the new growth will be safe at that temperature. At least I sure hope so.
It was a shock to see - and very scary. Thank goodness for Gardenweb and to getting a fast answer there. Without them, I probably would have just pulled up the entire bush! It's supposed to freeze here, too, but nothing like down to 13 degrees! That does not sound good for new growth on roses, does it?
DeleteI've seen that a lot in forsythia and never really thought too much about it beyond thinking it was an interesting - and quite pretty - phenomenon.
ReplyDeleteKnowing that there's nothing harmful in it, it's just one of those idiosyncrasies that make each plant different from another of the exact same origin. I do love the diversity and quirkiness of nature.
I don't have any forsythia in my garden. Maybe if I had, I would have known. It is interesting - but anything that's just not right with the roses concerns me! Do you think I'm an over-protective mother? :) Now that I know it's not harmful, I almost am sorry I cut it off. Almost. :)
DeleteIt's happened once or twice but it can be quite fun seeing this rare phenomenon on certain plants, and the oddity it becomes :) Fascinating fasciation indeed!
ReplyDeleteWell, now that I know what it is, I'll find it a bit more fascinating and less scary next time! I bet on cacti it would be really pretty!
DeleteLearn something new every day!
ReplyDeleteSo true! Gardening is fun and challenging! :)
DeleteI've suffered from fasciation too. Well not me personally, the plants I mean. I first saw it on a foxglove stem, and the foxglove produced bigger blooms because of it. I've since seen it on forsythia stems as well, but the forsythia suffered no ill effects and grew normally the following year.
ReplyDeletehaha - Crystal, I would be really worried if you had a leg with fasciation! ;) Hmmm, bigger blooms. Maybe I should have left that cane on the rose! I just wanted it away from the rose, and away from me as soon as possible!
DeleteWow that's really weird to see! It never happened to my roses, fortunately. Happy to hear what it is, for the future and you made me smile too with your comments along with serious information, good post.
ReplyDeleteYes, I am glad to know about it, too, and if I ever see it again I won't panic! I hope it never happens again, though, and I hope it never happens to you.
DeleteGlad to hear it is not something serious that would affect other plants...I have never seen this..and what a great name for it "fascination"...it is fascinating isn't it...
ReplyDeleteI was very relieved to find it wouldn't affect the rest of my garden! I really was panicking for a while there. After the scare was gone, the fascination took hold. The odd and unusual are not something I like to see in my garden, though!
DeleteI've never heard of fasciation before. It's very interesting and I'm glad it is not a major problem with your beautiful roses. That hedge is just incredible.
ReplyDeleteI agree on the Pinterest issue about the repinning and all. My problem is while one person may give credit all the photos that are pinned from that website (in my case my blog) get so convoluted the credit is then lost. I emailed the administrators and they took my photos off from the website and I was very happy about it. I hope no more find there way there and I do check but as an added safety net I added my url to my pictures. I hated doing that and I really don't like spending the time but had to go this route. I only wish I could add it in to all of my older photos as it seems the photos people take seem to wind up not being marked. Perhaps they don't take the marked ones? I hope so at any rate. Snowing here. Enjoy your day. So happy you got some blueberries too!
Glad to know I'm not the only one that had never dealt with this. I guess those strange occurrences make us better gardeners. I wonder why people think taking photos is o.k. It's so prevalent, though, I doubt it's going to stop any time soon. I may have to look into adding something to my photos, but like you, I would hate having to spend the extra time doing that - when people should know better in the first place!
DeleteYou may get a whole different rose bloom from it then. That would be nice. I have never saw it before so thanks for the information about it.
ReplyDeleteIt bloomed last year before I realized the whole cane was affected. The blooms were very close together, like a little bouquet, but they were the same, not like a sport. Now, if I had a sporting cane that would be exciting!
DeleteI did have that on one of my roses, not certain which one, but I just cut it off and hoped for the best. It has not reoccurred that I have noticed. I guess next week I will get a better look when I get out and prune the bushes. I have been thinking of holding off until the end of the month just in case Winter does decide to make an appearance.
ReplyDeleteI think it usually doesn't come back after it's cut off. I've been pruning since January. Almost done! One year I had to go around and re-prune because a late freeze caused some damage. You just never know what you'll get at this time of year!
DeleteI too never heard of the term before, plus never saw this type of growth. It really is an odd name for such a strange happening. Thanks for posting this, I will surely remember your image.
ReplyDeleteI will now know, too, if it ever happens again. Next time I won't panic, and I might just let it grow and see what happens!
DeleteI got some ugly growth on my coneflowers year before last and had to yank them all out. I can't remember what it was, but it was diseased. Luckily it seemed to only infect one or two plants.
ReplyDeleteIt's so sad when a disease takes over. I would hate to lose a lot of plants like that. I hope you can now grow coneflowers again.
DeleteDon't remember seeing any such thing on any plants, but then my garden has hardly any plants. Also, it really looks normal and healthy; can't see anything bad in the picture.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if vegetables get this - I bet they do, sometimes. But it might be desirable in vegetables - more veggies per stem!
DeleteHuh, I don't remember seeing this, but I have seen weird growth patterns on plants before. Usually it's inconsequential, but these things do give us pause, don't they? Thanks for adding the lovely photo of the Roses with the statue for "beauty relief." Interesting post!
ReplyDeleteIt sure gave me pause! I didn't know what it was, but wanted it gone as soon as possible! :) I'm so very glad it wasn't serious.
DeleteHolley, I can see why that would scare you. I'm always wandering around in my hosta beds looking for strange markings and signs of diseases. There's always something, it seems, out there lurking, trying to wreak havoc with our beloved plants. Thank goodness this wasn't one of them!
ReplyDeleteI love your garden, such beauty, peace and tranquility!
It seems we do have keep on top of things. There's always surprises in the garden, most of the time good ones, but every once in a while we get a scare! Thanks for your kind compliment.
DeleteThis is a malady that I have not encountered. Great info for a fledgling rosarian!
ReplyDeleteI hope you never encounter it, either. Although now that i know what it is, it's not scary, just very interesting.
DeleteThanks, Anne!
ReplyDeleteDear Holley, I would have freaked out! Thank you for the information -- totally new to me. P. x
ReplyDeletehaha - Pam, I did freak out! It was quite disturbing. But, I'm glad to have learned something new.
DeleteI've seen that, too. I just cut off the affected part and kept an eye out to see if it happened again. It usually didn't. It is pretty weird!!
ReplyDeleteWell, you knew just what to do. I have to say I was not expecting to see something so strange and unusual on one of my roses, and I didn't like it at all! I'm definitely going to keep an eye out on this plant for some time!
DeleteHi Holley - Never heard of that word before!
ReplyDeleteI wrote a Thank-You post to Donna & yourself, hope you like it.
I'm so glad I introduced you to something new! Maybe if you ever have this happen in your garden, you can do an experiment with it!
DeleteI had never heard of or seen that before. Really interesting and now if I see anything like that going on with my roses I'll know what it is.
ReplyDeleteI had never heard of or seen that before. Really interesting and now if I see anything like that going on with my roses I'll know what it is.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad to know about it now, too, although I wish it hadn't been my own garden that i learned it from! But, like you, now I'll know what it is.
DeleteThere's so much to learn about plants isn't there? I've never heard of this before but now I"ll know what it is if I see it.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if this defect is related to witches brooms on conifers---seems similar. Did I miss a discussion of Pinterest? I agree with what Tina said. If the photo is really popular it is taken off Pinterest and put directly onto someone's blog. I find this annoying but am not going to do anything about it now.
ReplyDeleteNo, I don't think it has anything to do with witches brooms, even though I thought when I first saw it that it might. It's more like several stems fused together, instead of a dwarfism or deformity like that of witches broom. Tina had a notice to "Pinners" on her website to please not take her pictures. I found it interesting that she felt the need to address them directly. It shows how popular Pinterest is, and how widespread the use of stealing photos has become.
DeleteI'm so timid with the idea of growing roses. If this had happened to me, that might have put me over the edge! Leave it to the experts like you...
ReplyDeleteIt almost put me over the edge! :) I'm so glad I took the time to ask, instead of immediately act, because I would have gotten rid of a perfectly good plant. Since it's a rare occurrence, that makes me feel much better!
DeleteI've seen it a few times, but normally in tree's water sprouts, rapid growth in the meristem. I wonder if you can visualize a pineapple fruit which turned like a fan (fanshaped fruit) with several crowns on top. This is another maybe 'fasciation' but it is caused by too much concentration of ethylene used for flower forcing in pineapples.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the pineapple information. I bet the pineapple would actually be very pretty. I didn't realize that they used ethylene to force flowering in pineapples. It's amazing the things that are done to plants, and I wonder if something so small could have caused my rose's fasciation.
DeleteThanks for the information! I never seen this before!
ReplyDeleteNow if you see it, you'l know. It's a bit scary looking!
DeleteI never heard of this. You rose bush is beautiful. love the picture. thanks for the info.
ReplyDeleteI hope your roses never do this! I know how you love them.
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