Need help saving flowering almond bush

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LauriSinger Paddock Lake, WI May 14, 2014

I have an older flowering almond. It's quite straggly, but still flowering. Underneath, coming up from the soil, are tons of 2' high stalks that have the same leaves. Are these new bushes growing? Or suckers that need to be gotten rid of? They are not coming off the trunk, they are coming up from the ground. The bush is really awkward, with one 2" wide branch sticking way out, and not a lot of small flowering side branches on it. I'd love to save it, or propagate a new one from it.

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ViburnumValley Scott County, KY(Zone 5b) May 17, 2014

Take some pictures of this plant, and post them for us to evaluate.

Show the whole plant, and the context in which it is growing. Then show some closer views of the suckering/stemming situation that you are describing. It always helps to see what is going on.

Flowering Almond is in the Prunus clan, so suckering is not a surprise. It helps to also know which species you have, since more than one lay claim to this common name. Pictures can help sort that out too.

Without additional information, this kind of behavior is often a result of some sort of damage or stress to the parent plant. Drought, excess heat, flooding, ice, extreme cold, borers, etc. all can have some deleterious effect to the main stems, branches, etc, which cause the plant to trigger breaking of dormant buds around the base of the plant, or from along the main roots if this is a plant that can "colonize", similar to Sumac, Elderberry, and Kerria. These produce new healthy stems to make up for whatever loss may be occurring in the crown of the existing plant (which you've described as "straggly").

I'm not knowledgeable about specific propagation techniques for this plant, but most colonizing plants can be divided by simply digging up some of the healthy root system and replanting that. This is best done in the dormant season, but with TLC can be successful at other times of year.

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