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Plant rose from off-cut?

Hello Everyone. 

I love roses but don't know the first thing. I also love planting from seeds and off-cuts. Our neighbour has this beautiful rose bush. I'd love to try and plant myself one from theirs. (With their permission of course.) But I don't know if there's a best time of the year for it. Or if I should plant a branch that has just flowered or has no flowers on it at all etc. Could you please advise? Many thanks. 

Éva. 

Hello Eva,

Regarding your question planting roses, first of all there are couple of ways to buy your roses, one being a bare root plant, these are grown at the nursery in open ground/soil, these when required are dug up, the soil removed from the roots, packed in a way to stop the roots drying out and sent of to customers, when received these should be planted as soon as possible. If when received the ground has been hit hard by frosts it is recommended to put the plant in a container and store keeping the plant slightly moist out of frosts way and keeping them ready for planting when the frosts have gone. Getting them in the ground early and giving them a head start just prior to the start of the growing season, when planting dig into the soil a nice bit of well-rotted organic matter, manure is good for this but it must be old rotted manure.

You can of course buy roses that are in pots/containers from your local garden centre, the time to buy roses is dependent upon your requirements, garden centres have roses for sale for most of the year, if you want instant impact, buy when the plant is in flower, but think about how long the plant has been flowering, has it had a second show of flowers, and therefore shortly all you may have are bare stems? But some roses flower well into late autumn.

I would suggest that you buy your roses fairly early, these will not look too good, a flower pot with a few stems protruding from the pot, treat these the same as planting a bare root stock, again getting them in the ground early will give them a good start, and once growing roses do like a nice feed.

Taking a hardwood cutting from your neighbours plants, cut a good strong stem from the bottom of the plant ground level, don’t use anything that is a bit whippy and thin, a stem about the thickness of your little finger (minimum) cut this stem just below a bud, then move up the stem and cut just above a bud, your first cut at the bottom wants to be straight across, the cut above the top stem make it an angle, then remove all the leaves, you know which way up the cutting is to be planted because the top cut is slanted, the bit that goes into the ground is flat across the stem, if your initial stem is a good length there is no reason you cannot make about 3 or cuttings from it.

You can either plant these direct into the soil, or into containers, I place a little grit where the base of the cutting sits as I do not want it to get water logged, I think the best time for taking cuttings is autumn when the plant is dormant and let nature take its course on growing.

Copy this link and or paste, it’s Lee’s Video on Roses, how an expert does it.

Plus look for the various types of roses, Ramblers, climbers, ground cover, tea roses etc

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=How+to+plant+bare+root+roses+garden+ninja

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Occ2WuIBnU

Hope all goes well, let the forum know how you get on.

Bob

Hi Eva,

Great to hear from you and thanks for your question about how to take rose cuttings.

Bobs advice is fantastic - he's one of the Garden Ninja masters. 

Taking cuttings from roses is easy, but remember that most roses are grafted into root stocks to control their size and shape. Taking a cutting basically bypasses this root stock so what may have been a small patio rose may - without the grafted root stock - be more vigorous or have a different size all together.

Here's the steps to taking rose cuttings just to confirm:

  1. The best time to take cuttings for roses are semi ripe cuttings in late spring or summer
  2. Your want to cut on this years growth - healthy shoots around the width of a pencil
  3. Take cuts up to 25cm just above a bud - remove all leaves on your cutting.
  4. Cutting at an angle above the top bud so you know which end is the top
  5. Make sure that the base of each cutting (or basal part of the cutting) is always cut straight so you know which end goes into the soil.
  6. You can dip the straight cut edge in rooting hormone if you wish
  7. Plant in either a trench or pot 10cm deep (plant 10cm of the base of the cutting in the soil)
  8. Water well and leave for 6-8 months
  9. You will know when its taken as the top buds or leaves will start to shoot. Once this happens carefully dig up and plant in their final destination.

It is not the quickest way to propagate roses but is the most cost effective!

If you want to get some guidance for how and where to cut this softwood guide to propagation will give some assitance.

Happy gardening!

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