Rose cuttings - now what do I do?

I've managed to get some rose cuttings to root. They did so very quickly - I think it's been around a month. I now have around half a dozen rooted cuttings in a smallish pot and roots are beginning to appear through the drainage holes. There hasn't been much top growth, however - some cuttings are just beginning to produce tiny leaf buds. What should I do? Should I leave well alone for a bit or pot them on singly now?

 

That's very quick, Im controlling my jealousy! Tried to get some rambler cuttings to strike with no success :(

Might give it another try.

 

I would pot them on ClaraLou. One to a 3 inch pot.
Give them plenty of TLC and wait and see what happens.
I would protect them over winter in a cold frame and hope they take off in the spring.
Do let's know what happens. I can always get them started but they never come to any good. Maybe I've always had too many things on the go and they didn't get the attention they needed.
I've found a few seedling roses about the garden. I think I might give them some TLC and see how they get on.
We could compare notes.

 

Thank you, Alice. My cuttings are from a particularly tough old rambler which was itself grown from a stick which was just shoved in the ground by my neighbour and left to get on with it circa 1946! I'm hoping the cuttings will prove to be equally good-tempered.

 

Please don't forget to take them in in winter. I took loads last summer and they were all doing well. I forgot to bring them in and of course they all perished in the cold

 

How do you do cuttings from a rose bush to start a new one?

 

Hi Surfer

Wiseoldowl will be able to tell you all the proper ways of doing things which I don't know :D. He will probably also tell you that commercially raised roses are grafted onto rootstock for good reason - they often grow better that way.

All I did, however, was to take some semi-ripe shoots and remove the tips (which would wilt anyway) and then trim them to around four inch lengths, cutting just below a leaf node at the base and leaving one set of leaves per cutting. I dipped the base of the cuttings in some rooting compound and then potted them up using John Innes number 2. So far, so good - although I still have to get them through the winter!

I think the rose I'm trying to propagate is a particularly tough and good-tempered one, which definitely helps!

 

Oh well done ClaraLou, I tried this once but it just died. Do keep us updated with how they are getting on!!

Val

 

Hi Claralou,

The "stick" your neighbour planted was undoubtedly a hardwood/semi-ripe cutting taken in early Autumn and left to thrive, which they do relatively easily if left alone, I get great success with these too. But I have noted before that rose cuttings do seem to show a lot of fervent growth at first-deceptive, because they are not necessarily as far on as as they first look to be, quite sneaky of them actually. If moved too soon they have a nasty habit of dying on me.

I suggest you allow the roots to fill the pot they are in first and then move on. I think it will increase the chances of failure if you move them just yet. I wouldn't chance it at this stage, earliest I would move them is late Spring next year especially as they are establishing well where they are. An established rose can take on our English winters without flinching, a cutting can do so if protected a little in it's first winter. I would bank on it being safer if protected a little out of a greenhouse or coldframe as they derive a lot of benefit from the air circulation outside and there is the ever present scourge of mould affecting cuttings in greenhouses and coldframes in our usually damp winters here.

As mentioned, I understand that commercial growers do graft roses onto stock to give a particular rose a quality it may ordinarily lack. As any plant species becomes more selectively bred they develop certain weaknesses along with the strengths. Weaknesses the rose breeder has to overcome, as said certainly not the humble private gardener.

To keep a standby just in case I think you may consider taking a leaf out of your neighbour's book and strike some hardwood cuttings this Autumn, putting all of the cuttings directly in the area you want one to grow in permanently and then choose the best one to leave there next yr and pull the rest out. It worked last time, I can't see why it wouldn't work this time-same area, same plant, same technique. Those are good odds. Good Luck.

 

Thank you Lollipop. I think I will follow your advice and do some hardwood cuttings as insurance policies. It's frustrating when cuttings don't take but fantastic when they do. It's that wonderful 'something for nothing' feeling. :lollol:

 

.............."It's that wonderful 'something for nothing' feeling."


Just about my favourite feeling of all. The only hard part will be deciding which of the hardwood cuttings to dispose of, which explains why I have probably too many roses.