Find out how to grow roses from cuttings to make your garden extra gorgeous.
Or you may want to create backups of a rare variety or a family heirloom rose.
Homegrown rose cuttings are also great for swapping with other gardeners.
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Here’s how to grow roses from cuttings successfully, broken down into 10 simple steps.
But for more consistent results, check the weather forecast.
That will probably be in spring and fall.
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Whenever youprune your rose plantsorcut off the faded flowers, the balance of hormones in the removed stem changes.
Under the right conditions, the changes stimulate it to grow roots.
The resulting plant is identical to the parent.
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Julie Bang
Water the Day Before
Healthy, well-hydrated roses root better.
Take Cuttings
Choose stems immediately below flower buds that are just about to open.
The second best option is stems beneath flowers that have begun to drop their petals.
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Heel wood often roots more easily.
It’s located at the base of a stem right where it emerges from another stem.
Try pulling your stem straight out from where it attaches.
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Or cut slightly into the older shoot with a sharp knife.
Place Cuttings in Water
Immediately put your cuttings into a container of water out ofdirect sunlight.
Or wrap cuttings in damp paper towels and place them in a cooler.
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You want to keep the cut stems as hydrated as possible.
Slice Bottom End of Cuttings
Rooting is part of a wound response for roses.
Encourage increased rooting by vertically slicing through the green skin on the bottom inch of the cutting.
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Do this two to four times spaced roughly equally.
If you’re trying togrow rosesfrom cuttings without rooting hormone, steps 1-4 are even more important.
Reduce the top leaves to three or four leaflets total.
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Slice the bud from the lowest node to encourage roots to grow.
Press the mix around the stem and water thoroughly.
This could be on a covered porch, on the side of a shed, or under trees.
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It could even be indoors on a shaded windowsill.
You shouldn’t need to add more water unless the potting mix seems to be completely drying out.
If you rooted several in a single pot,carefully repot theminto individual containers.
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On the flip side, following every step exactly won’t guarantee success 100% of the time either.
That’s why you should take multiple cuttings to increase your chances of success.
And be open to some trial and error as you experiment with growing roses from cuttings.
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However, the overwhelming majority of rose varieties are legal to root.
Many of the older varieties actually depend on gardeners to preserve them by reproducing and sharing them.
There’s a longstanding theory thatpotatoesare the ultimate rose rooting medium.
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But keep in mind that potato tubers are actually alive.
They have their own mix of plant hormones and immune defenses.
You may have heard that roses root easily in water.
While they may start the rooting process in water, it doesn’t go anywhere.
There may be exceptions, so you could always try it and see if you have any luck.
But expect the best results following the above guidelines.
There’s typically a 50-75 percent chance that the cutting will develop roots and grow into a new plant.
Making several cuttings from the same rose increases your chances of at least one rooting successfully.
