Propagating a rose bush
Rooting Roses: Growing Roses From Cuttings
Roses
By: Stan V. Griep, American Rose Society Consulting Master Rosarian, Rocky Mountain District
One way to propagate roses is from rose cuttings taken from the rose bush one desires to have more of. Keep in mind that some rose bushes may still be protected under patent rights and thus, are not to be propagated by anyone other than the patent holder. Keep reading to learn more about how to root roses.
The best time to take rose cuttings and rooting roses is in the cooler months, perhaps starting in September, as the success rate is higher for home gardeners at this time. The rose cuttings that one is going to try to root are best taken from the stems of the rose bush that have just flowered and are about to be deadheaded.
The rose cutting should be 6 to 8 inches (15-20.5 cm.) in length, measuring down the stem from the base of the bloom. I recommend keeping a jar or can of water handy so that the fresh cuttings may be placed directly into the water after making the cutting. Always use sharp, clean pruners to take the cuttings.
The planting site for growing roses from cuttings should be one where they will get good exposure from the morning sun yet be shielded from the hot afternoon sun. The soil in the planting site should be well-tilled, loose soil, with good drainage.
To start rose bushes from cuttings, once the rose cuttings have been taken and brought to the planting site, take out a single cutting and remove the lower leaves only. Make a small slit with a sharp knife on one or two sides of the lower portion of the cutting, not a deep cut but just enough to penetrate the outer layer of the cutting. Dip the lower portion of the cutting into a rooting hormone powder.
The next step when you grow roses from cuttings is to use a pencil or metal probe and push down into the planting site soil to make a hole that is deep enough to plant the cutting up to about 50 percent of its overall length. Place the cutting that has been dipped into the rooting hormone into this hole.
Lightly push the soil in around the cutting to finish the planting. Do the same thing for each cutting keeping them at least 8 inches (20.5 cm.) apart. Label each row of rose cuttings with the name of the mother rose bush it was taken from.
Place a jar over each cutting to form a sort of miniature greenhouse for each cutting. It is extremely important that the soil moisture for the cuttings does not dry out at this rooting time. The jar will help to hold humidity in but can be a problem if it is subjected to a lot of hot afternoon sun, as it will overheat the cutting and kill it, thus the need for shielding against the exposure to the hot afternoon sun when you root roses. Watering of the planting site every other day may be required to keep the soil moist but do not create a standing water or muddy soil situation.
Once the new roses have taken root well and have begun to grow, they may be moved to their permanent locations in your rose beds or gardens. The new rose bushes will be small but usually grow fairly quickly.
The new rose bushes must be well protected against the hard winter freezes in their first year as well as extreme heat stress conditions.
Please keep in mind that many rose bushes are grafted rose bushes. This means that the bottom part is a hardier rootstock that will withstand cold and heat better than the top and more desired part of the rose bush. Starting a rose bush from cuttings places the new rose bush on its own roots, so it may not be as hardy in cold climates or in extreme heat conditions climates. Being on its own root system can cause the new rose bush to be far less hardy than its mother rose bush.
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Grow Roses from Cuttings: 2 Best Ways to Propagate!
How to grow roses from cuttings easily! Compare the BEST & worst ways to propagate in water or soil, using potatoes, & root by air layering.
Maybe it’s a beautiful rose plant in the garden that you want to multiply, or a Valentines rose bouquet that you want to grow into more roses, it’s easy to want more colorful and gorgeous rose bushes and vines in our homes and gardens.
Many plant lovers have tried to grow roses from cuttings. There are many rose propagation methods such as rooting in soil or water, air layering, and some even try to grow rose cuttings in potatoes! Some of these methods are great, some actually don’t work very well.
Today we are going to compare which ways are the best and easiest to propagate roses from either a plant, cut flowers or even a bouquet. Wouldn’t it be nice to have more roses in our gardens or as gifts to share with friends? 🙂
Can you propagate patented roses?
* Some resources in article are affiliate links. Full disclosure here .
A plant patent lasts for 20 years, after which the plant is allowed to be propagated.
If the roses are patented within the last 20 years, it is illegal to propagate the rose without the consent of the patent holder. ( Source )
However, there are endless varieties of roses you CAN propagate. For example, the famous “New Dawn” and “Charlotte Armstrong” roses were patented over 50 years ago, and old-fashioned heirloom roses often root easier than modern hybrids.
Now you know which roses not to propagate, let’s look at the best and easiest methods to root rose cuttings! ( Source )
Best time to grow roses from cuttings
The best time to grow roses from cuttings is from spring through summer, when flexible new stems (current year’s growth) are actively growing. They are called softwood cuttings, who are the fastest and easiest to root when you select healthy stems.
Look at all the beautiful rooted rose cuttings by Vuon & Nha on YouTube! Video tutorial below:
The next best are semi-hardwood cuttings, taken in late summer and early fall, when new stems have partially matured.
Hardwood cuttings are most difficult type of cutting to root. They are taken in late fall or early winter, when the rose stems have matured and entered dormancy.
Grow roses from cuttings by air layering
Air layering is a fascinating propagation method being used for thousands of years! Nowadays there are easy products like these reusable air layering pods you can get, or make your own with simple materials such as small water bottles or plastic bags.
Air layering is the BEST way to propagate roses (and many woody plants) if the rose bush or vine that you want to multiply is already growing in your garden or in a friend’s garden.
You don’t even have to use rooting powder with this method.
The best time for air layering roses is in late spring or summer when the weather is warm and the rose bushes are actively growing. ( Air layering rose video tutorial below. )
Select a stem that is about the thickness of a pencil and longer than a foot. Take a clean sharp knife, find a spot at about 1 foot for the top tip of the stem, remove leaves and thorns around this area, peel off about a 1 inch section of the green bark tissue to get to white wood.
You can also make a 2” long cut along the middle of the stem, and insert a little piece of plastic straw to prop the cut open, like shown in the above video tutorial by Vuon & Nha.
Don’t cut too deeply into the stem or it could break.
Dust the cut area with rooting hormone. You can skip this, but rooting hormone does help speeding up the process.
Next, make a 3” to 4” size pouch using either plastic wrap or a small plastic bottle filled with moist peat moss, coir, or potting soil. Coco coir is a great medium to root rose cuttings. It is sustainable and clean, which is important for propagation.
The cut area should be completely covered with enough room for roots to develop. Video tutorial below by Vuon & Nha.
Secure top and bottom with strings or twist-tie (Not too tight so the plant can grow and expand).
You can also use these reusable air layering pods.
Because the stem is still attached to the mother plant, it is receiving water and nutrients as the new roots are growing from the cut area. This greatly increases the propagation success rate to nearly 100%!
Most rose plants show their white roots in 3 – 5 weeks. When you see good root system develops with lots of healthy roots, clip the stem off below the layer.
Gently remove ties and covers. Carefully plant your new rose plants and keep them well watered and protected from direct sunlight for a couple of weeks so it can adapt.
Grow roses from cuttings in soil or medium
Fill some clean pots or containers rooting mix and water well so it’s moist and fully hydrated. You can use clean potting soil or a soil-less mix such as clean sand, peat moss, perlite, or Coco coir. ( Photo by Hedgerow Rose)
IMPORTANT: The containers should have drainage holes and never sit in water for too long.
( Photo by Grownups )
Coco coir is a great medium to root rose cuttings. It is sustainable and clean, which is important for propagation.
Take rose cuttings only from healthy plants that are well watered. Choose fresh healthy rose stems newly grown from the woody base, with at least 3-5 leaf nodes on the stem. Cut near the base at a 45-degree angle. Put cut stems in water immediately.
Video tutorial by Vuon & Nha on YouTube. How to propagate rose cuttings in coco coir!Cut longer stem into 6 inch to 8 inch long, and make sure each cutting have at least 3 nodes – where leaf meets stem. Remove all flower buds and leaves except for one set of leaves at the top of each cutting.
Dip the cutting’s bottom half in the rooting hormone powder or gel. Use a pencil to make a planting hole 3 to 4 inches deep in your rooting mix. Plant the rose cutting into the hole so at least two nodes are covered.
Keep the cuttings in a warm and bright place away from direct sun. Water when the rooting mix start to feel dry on the top inch. Pamela at Flower Patch farm used recycled coffee cups (above) and large jars (below ) as humidity tent. Such great ideas!
You can also use a propped- up plastic bag or a mini greenhouse. Here are 45 best DIY greenhouses you can make from tiny to big!
If you live in a warm humid climate with a shaded outdoor area, you can skip the humidity cover. ( Photo below by Hartwood Roses )
Most softwood rose cuttings will root within 2 to 6 weeks. If you see healthy leaves growing, and feel some resistance when you very gently tug on the cuttings (don’t do this too soon!) , it’s likely they have rooted.
Here’s a YouTube tutorial by Mike on how to use a humidity cover made from plastic bottles.
Now you can remove the humidity tent and let them grow for a couple more weeks before transplanting the cuttings. Below is another propagation example by Lilisim.
Can you root rose cuttings in water?
Rose cuttings do not propagate well in just water. Some cuttings will root, but the success rate is usually about 20%, while you can get 80% success by propagating rose cuttings in soil medium or by layering.
The rose cuttings tend to take a long time to root in water, and is prone to rotting.
However, some favorite plants can root very easily in water! Here are a couple of tutorials on how to propagate Fiddle Leaf Fig or Hydrangea cuttings in soil or water with almost 100% success!
Hydrangeas are some of the easiest flowers to propagate! Tutorial here!Can you grow rose cuttings using potatoes?
There are many viral images of rose cuttings in potatoes, but I have not seen any scientific or real life evidence of potatoes or dipping in honey making rose cuttings grow more quickly or successfully.
On the contrary, there are many reports of failures from gardeners who actually tried to grow rose cuttings in potatoes.
The potatoes may grow roots, which will not magically become rose roots. The rose cuttings need a medium that holds moisture and air, which isn’t really what a potato does.
That’s it! Use the first 2 methods, and happy gardening! 🙂
Propagation of roses by dividing the bush. Video
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06 March 2015
Propagation of roses by dividing the bush. Video
Rose, perhaps, is recognized by everyone as the queen among flowers, a symbol of beauty and luxury. Probably, there is no amateur gardener who would not try to grow and decorate his plot with a rose bush. And if you do not chase after some exotic varieties, then it turns out that the rose is a rather unpretentious and not capricious plant (as true queens should be).
Moreover, getting a rose seedling is quite simple, and for this it is not at all necessary to go to a garden center. Those gardeners who breed roses will tell you several ways of its vegetative propagation: layering, offspring, by grafting, etc. What is the beauty of vegetative propagation methods? They are, as a rule, simple and allow you to get new plants that completely repeat the properties of the parent specimen. One of the easiest ways to vegetatively propagate roses is to divide the bush. As a matter of fact, everything is simple: we take and cut the bush into pieces. But there are some nuances, and if you miss them, then the divided parts of the bush may die. This method is good if you already have old or just overgrown roses. Thus, you: 1 - get new roses for free. 2 - old roses will rejuvenate and they will have more space for normal growth and development.
- Propagation of roses by dividing the bush is carried out either in autumn or early spring before bud break.
It must be understood that this method applies to own-rooted roses, that is, roses that are not grafted, but growing on their own roots. After all, by dividing the grafted bush, you will get one part of the grafted variety and the other, which will give only the growth of the rootstock. This method of propagation is very often used when propagating spray park roses, as they have neat, well-formed bushes and are easier to work with. But if the bush chosen for division is very overgrown, then before dividing its roots, you need to cut the branches strongly so that, firstly, they do not interfere with your work, and secondly, they do not take on a lot of nutrients that will so necessary for the normal formation of new roots. It is better to do such pruning the night before and water the bush well after it. - The next day, also better in the evening, we dig up the roots of the rose. If the bush is large, then carefully dig it in from all sides. Freeing the root system from the ground.
Then, slipping a shovel under the root, and acting like a lever, we pull the bush out of the ground. Of course, with a large bush, this operation will lead to a partial breaking of the roots, but this is not scary. The rose is a rather unpretentious plant and will be able to restore its root system. By the way, the pieces of root remaining in the ground can also germinate over time. - Having taken out the main root, carefully inspect it , and estimate how many parts it is reasonable to divide it into. How many such parts there will be depends on how many branches or living buds the root has. If you need a lot of new seedlings, then cut so that one bud or one shoot remains on the root, but keep in mind - this is a risky option. Rarely, but it happens that such small parts die - they are too small. It is more reasonable to cut off such a part from a common root so that it has the right amount of roots and 2-3 buds or twigs. To separate the root, you need to use a sharp knife or pruner.
If the base of the rose bush has grown very large and hardened, and cannot be divided with these tools, then you have to resort to the help of a sharp saw. Before work, they are recommended to be treated with alcohol, vodka or cologne. - Having received from one bush the number of cuttings you need, after preliminary dipping them in a mash of a mixture of clay and mullein (approximately 1: 1), are planted in place or temporarily in a special nursery. Since roses grow in one place for a long time, choose a planting place carefully so as not to replant - the place should be sunny. First, dig the area under the roses for one and a half or two bayonets. Incorporate wood ash, compost, or rotted manure into the soil.
When planting cuttings, do not forget about the root neck - do not deepen it, and do not plant it higher - it must be strictly at the level of the soil. After planting, water abundantly and mulch plantings with peat, compost, humus.
This is very important. the plant is weakened and has so far few roots. The soil should always be moderately moist. And do not forget at the same time to lubricate all the wounds on the cut shoots with garden pitch.
- A year later, quite a good bush develops from such divisions, has all the qualities inherent in this variety. Polyanthus roses, hybrid-polyanthus and floribunda roses take root especially well. Caring for such roses is no different from caring for ordinary adult roses. But if you notice that something is going wrong and they take root poorly, then they may need to be transplanted - the place or soil does not suit them. As a rule, divided bushes bloom in the second year after planting.
- As a variant of propagation by dividing the bush, one can offer this. The plant is not completely dug out of the ground, but only the lateral parts of the roots with shoots are exposed and the desired root is cut off with a pruner.
After such an operation, the roots of the main bush should be well watered and covered with earth, as well as additionally tamped.
It is recommended to feed the divided rose bushes with mineral fertilizers only when the seedlings have finally taken root and begin to grow. From early May to mid-July, nitrogen fertilizers are applied (15-20 g per sq. M), this contributes to the active growth of shoots, and from August, nitrogen fertilizers should be completely excluded from the “diet” of your roses. And switch to superphosphate (40 g per sq. M) and potassium salt (20 g per sq. M). So the roses will ripen better and overwinter.
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How to propagate a rose from a bush at home
Content
- How to choose the time
- The necessary tools
- Division and processing of the bush
- Planting and further care
- video “Take root of the rose without cutting off the bush”
Propagation from a bush is an effective way to propagate a garden or home rose, rejuvenate it and get several new plants.
In this article, we will look at how to successfully propagate a rose from a bush. Follow the rules and follow the recommendations, and you will certainly get an excellent result!
It should be noted that this method is not suitable for grafted roses, but only for those growing on their own roots (otherwise, if you separate the grafted bush, you will essentially get two different plants). It is best suited for garden shrub roses such as French, Centifolia, Rugosa, etc.
How to choose the time
To successfully plant roses by dividing the bush, the preferred time is autumn or early spring - until the moment how the buds open.
Required tools
To plant roses by dividing a bush, you will need not so many tools - a shovel and a knife (or pruner). The knife must be very sharp and leave an even cut, otherwise pathogenic microbes and bacteria can get into the plant through the “soaked” cut points, which will lead to its death. Also, the tool itself must be disinfected before work.
To do this, you can use pure alcohol or liquids containing it (cologne, vodka, etc.). If the bush is too large and old, a saw or an ax may be required to separate its roots (they should meet the same requirements).
Dividing and processing a bush
Before proceeding directly to dividing, sometimes it is necessary to carry out preparatory work. If the bush has grown, it will be necessary to prune the branches before dividing, otherwise they will interfere with the work, and in the future they will take too much strength from the plant, inhibiting the development of new roots. The best time to do this would be the evening before the division. After pruning, the rose should be well watered, and the cut points should be treated with garden pitch.
You can start dividing the very next day. Roses reproduce better if this process is carried out in the evening.
Dig out the roots. If the bush is very large, it should first be dug around the perimeter to free the roots from the ground.
Having dug in a bush, slip a shovel under it and press it to pull the bush out like a lever. A large bush will still break off a number of small roots, but this is not fatal - a healthy plant will be able to recover. In addition, if rather large pieces of roots remain in the ground, they can also sprout and multiply in the future.
Then carefully inspect the root to calculate how many viable parts it will produce. Theoretically, it can be divided into many parts, leaving each shoot with a kidney, but in this case there is a risk that many of them will be too weak and die. A more reliable option is to leave at least 2-3 shoots or buds on each part. Now, using the prepared tool, divide the root into the intended parts.
Planting and care
Now we will learn how to root a plot. Since roses live in one place for a long time, you should carefully choose a place for future planting of plots. The place should be well lit and protected from drafts; in general, the same rules should be observed as the roses of the mother bush.
The soil for roses should be dug up in advance by 1-2 bayonets and fertilized - rotted manure, compost and wood ash.
Before planting, dip the roots in a prepared mash of equal parts mullein and clay. The root neck must not be buried or placed above the soil level - it must be clearly at ground level.
Damaged, too small or dry branches, as well as damaged roots, must be removed from the plot. The shoots need to be cut, leaving 3-4 buds, while the upper ones should “look” outward so that the bush retains its aesthetic appearance.
Newly rooted roses will need to be carefully cared for as the plant is weakened: watering should be plentiful, regular mulching with peat, humus and compost is also necessary. Mineral top dressing is permissible only for established plants after rooting, otherwise the roots can be burned.
As a rule, a full-fledged bush will develop from such a plot in a year; in the second year after planting, you can wait for flowering.
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