Rose cuttings help & advice please.

2oaktrees

I have some pruned stems from my dads favourite rose. I don’t know what it is called and neither did he. It grows very leggy but has the most beautiful bunch of deep red roses I have ever seen.

I placed the stems in water and now have shoots growing from it. I would love to be able to grow them from cuttings and have something to remember him by. 

I bought some rootgrow powder from Wilkos and was hoping someobody would be kind enough to advise me how best to do this. 

Thank you 

Marlorena

Well there's no harm in trying but the cane on the left, which is all gone yellow and black is no good, discard it, it's diseased ridden and won't do anything.

The other two you can see if they will root in the water, over the next few weeks, just having leaves at the top does not mean they will root at the base... do they have little white shoots coming from the base?  even then, they may not take well to transplanting into a pot of compost.  

The only way I do cuttings is to take the stems like you have there and put them in the ground outside, in a sheltered spot, in November, leaving about 2 inches above ground, and just leave them and see if they root over the winter and show signs of growth during Spring but they need about 12 months to develop a reasonable root structure before replanting in a permanent position.   Best of luck..  

Fire

Is Nov the best time, then?

2oaktrees

I was thinking using the shoots of the stems as cuttings or is that not possible @Marlorena?

Blue Onion

Give it a try.. this site has some useful information about the various methods and results.  You could use a 2lr bottle over your pot, instead of a mason jar.  An open lid would allow better ventilation, while also helping to retain moisture.  What a lovely thought.. and good luck!

Marlorena

@2oaktrees

..I've never done cuttings that way like you want to do by using the shoots,  you might as well give it a go, but I think they are more likely to just die off.. you best do some research on that..

There are various favoured methods used by gardeners.  One such is the so called 'burrito' method, which involves wrapping cuttings in damp newspaper, folding them like a Mexican burrito, tie with rubber band and put in dark shed for a few weeks, where they are supposed to root quicker, but I've never done this.  Need to look that up..

Another one I like is to push the cuttings into a potato, the moisture in the spud helps to make them root, apparently.   You can look this up too, it seems very easy to do, and I rather like the idea if you have a potato or two to spare..

Otherwise, I shall stick to November, which has always been the traditional time to do this for us here, where unlike some of the demonstrations you see where they dig great trenches and fill with sand [usually a man thing in my experience], I just plonk them into the ground at that time of year, and let them be... they don't all root, some do..

2oaktrees

@Blue Onion @Marlorena

Thank you very much for your advice, I shall try your method. Very helpful people in here.