I know some roses are patented and you aren't supposed to propagate them at all, but how do you go about starting new roses? My mom has an ancient old rose bush that I love, and she thinks it's going to die in the next year or so (it has a huge hole right through the trunk -- and it is a trunk, it's that old). I know my sister starts roses all the time from cuttings, but I don't know if she grafts them on to other root stocks, or what. I have a book that tells about this, but I can't find it. Anyone know?

-- Beth (beth@xeney.com), March 10, 2000

Answers

Okay. I do know how to do this as I did it myself just about a year ago. At the end of May take your cuttings. You don't want extremely soft wood so you need to let it get a bit hard. Anyhow. Take a tray of soil, get you some wonderful Rooting hormone. If you can, get the commercial variety called Hormodin: Level 1 or 2. Level 3 is too strong and will burn it up. If you can't get that stuff (it is a powder) just get what you can.

Fill the tray or whatever you want to use, just keep in mind that you need to have a clear lid or plastic wrap to put on top of it. Water the soil so it is damp. Poke holes in the soil. Then take your cuttings. Transfer the cuttings to the soil as quickly as possible.

When you take the cuttings, you need to cut below a leaf node. A leaf node that faces to the outside of the stem. The cutting should be taken from a cane at the top. The cutting should be only 5-6" in length. No smaller than 5" and no larger than 7". Make sure there are at least 4-5 leaves to the cutting. If you can't get that many leaves on a cutting under 7", just get what you can.

Now. Very carefully scrape off the leaf node at the very bottom, the one that should be pointing outward. You want to take off just the leaf node stuff ....the bud part and scrape just a bit of the outer layer off at the node. Dip it into the powder and keep the cutting in bright light but not direct sun with a saran wrap or whatever cover and uncover once a day or so to let it "air out".

Umm. This is tough because I go on the "feel" of the plant. I must say this was my best area in the former job. I love propagation and I'm damn good at it.

If any part of this isn't clear, just yell. I'll try to expand.

-- Renee (justme@justme.org), March 11, 2000.