There are obviously many flower gardeners who have tried to cultivate roses from cuttings, but not everyone has got successful with it.
We're going to review several ways of growing roses by cutting, and we hope that this information will help you to become really successful in the cultivation of these truly royal flowers.
When it comes to roses, cutting propagation is way more effective than grafting or growing from seeds. It's really easy and possible at any time of the year, as you can use either spring sprouts from a bush or stems from a bouquet you've received as a gift...
4.1. Cultivating roses from cuttings in plastic bags.
Growing roses by cutting you can do in several ways:
Let's start with the most natural method such as a planting rose cuttings in the summer. The best is to cut stems in the early morning or in the late afternoon, and choose semi-dormant stems, or the ones that are about to thrive or already finished thriving. Cut a stem with a very sharp and sterile tool. Each cutting should have a length about 12-15 cm and have about 2-3 leaves, 2-3 buds, but no flowers. Make slant cuts right under the bottom node and 1.5-2 cm higher than the top node, remove all the bottom leaves and thorns. To avoid a fast evaporation it's better to remove also the other leaves or to shorten them leaving a 1/3 of their length.
Toassure a successful root formation, dip the bottom parts of your cuttings in a heteroauxin solution. Alternatively, you can use a glass of water mixed with a ½ tsp of honey and some cut rose leaves as a rooting stimulation solution.
You can root rose cuttings straight into your garden. Use a mixture of washed grained sand and fertile soil, and prepare dimples by watering them with a strong potassium permanganate solution. Heel the cuttings in the dimples with a 45° angle, and be sure that the bottom bud is digged in the soil. Then water the bedding and cover the cuttings with jars for a green house effect.
If the air temperature during the day stays around 25°C, and in the night goes no lower than 18°C, then it normally takes about a month to root, and you will see there little sprouts growing out of buds. After a couple of weeks, to train your plants you have to take the jars off first for a while, then after a few days of training you will no longer need the jars.
By the Fall the young sprouts will grow up to 30-40 cm up. It's very likely that you will see some new buds on them. In this case you need to nip off the new buds, so your sprouts don't spend their energy on blooming, but only on rooting.
This is the general concept of growing roses from cuttings.
In the Fall it's better to dig your young roses out in their soil-balls and store them in a basement during the winter, or just put them in pots and keep them in a chilly light place until the Spring is back.
To root rose cuttings in potatoes make a 15 cm deep trench in a very light and from wind protected place in the Spring, and fill the trench with 5 cm sand layer. Take about 20 cm long cuttings without thorns and stick them into young middle sized potatoes without buds. Heel the cutting (potato down) in the trench, 2/3 of their length deep and with a 15 cm interval. For the first days it's recommended to cover the cuttings with jars.
The trick is that young potatoes constantly keep the rose cuttings in a humid environment. Besides that, potatoes enrich the cuttings with starches and carbohydrates. It is one of the most popular methods of vegetative propagation.
Water your plants regularly and once in 5 days dress the soil with the sugared water (2 tsp of sugar in a glass of water). After two weeks begin with training your future roses to grow without jars for a while. Two more weeks, and they don't need the jars anymore.
It's such an easy trick to grow roses in potatoes.
Cultivating roses from cuttings of bouquet stems brings you good results as well. But keep in mind that the roses in this case must be local. Most flowers that come from abroad are being treated with preservatives, therefore unable to root.
There are a few more details you need to remember about when growing roses this way:
If you decide to root roses from a bouquet, don't wait too long, make sure to use fresh flowers. Remove all the flowers, buds and thorns, cut stems on 15-30 cm long parts. Remove leaves at the bottom, shorten the top leaves to keep about 1/3 of their length. Then put the cuttings into a vase of distilled water. Change the water regularlyuntill you see the first roots on your cuttings. Then move them into a flower pot or straight into the soil. Maybe (depending on the season) you will need to cover them with jars as described earlier above.
Place your cuttings into a plastic bag with germproof soil or peat dustmoistened with aloe latex (1part of aloe for 9 parts of water). Inflate and close the bag, then hang it at the window. Thanks to the high level of humidity it will become foggy inside the bag. Your cuttings will root in about a month. When rooted, you can plant them as described earlier in the article.
In the case it's not handy for you to root cutting inside the house here is the way to save them outside even during the winter.
The whole point of this method is to save the cuttings alive and able to root and grow until the Spring. Heel your cuttings in the ground and cover them, so they don't get cold and wet. Like this the cuttings will survive the winter and in the spring you will be able to move them on their permanent place in the garden.
It's still controversial if growing roses with the Burrito method is a good idea. It doesn't guarantee a 100% rooting, and we honestly wouldn't even guarantee a 50% success. If you love experiments though, then you probably don't mind to try this game of luck.
Cut the stems, treat their bottom parts with a heteroauxin solution or another rooting stimulator, then wrap the cuttings into a moist newspaper. Keep them in a dark, chilly (15-18°C) place for a couple of weeks. Then your cuttings will get roots.
The key point of this method is to let stems to get as much as possible starches from leaves before you even cut them.
Recommended articles for you:
In June or July, after a blooming wave choose suitable stems, cut off the top part together with a dead flower and a pair of tiny leaves. Be sure to check the stems for turgid buds. They indicate that the woody cores are ready to continue growing, so you must act quick because you need to process everything before the leaves pop out. Cut the stems in 20 cm cuttings in the way we described before. Remove all the leaves except two on top. Plant the cuttings straight to their permanent place, with 45° angle, a few cutting in each dimple – at least one of them will survive. Cover the cuttings with large plastic domes (e.g. 5 liter plastic drinking water bottles with their top parts cut off) – it will protect your cuttings from the cold, even when they get their first sprouts already.
The soil where you planted your cuttings needs to be watered and mellowed around the domes, so that the roots will have sufficient access to oxygen.
Some of the ways of growing roses by cuttings you can also use for home rose plants.