Too late for rose cuttings?

Posts

• Mr. Vine Eye Posts: 2,394

  December 2018 edited December 2018

  No it's not too late - you can do it any time during dormancy - it's "best" to do it just after leaf fall, or just before bud burst in late winter. But you can do it any time between avoiding periods of severe frost.
  
  Its fairly mild here at the moment so now could be a good time if you can't wait til Feb.
  
  

  • Select vigorous healthy shoots that have grown in the current year 

  • Remove the soft tip growth 

  • Cut into sections 15-30cm (6in-1ft) long, cutting cleanly above a bud at the top, with a sloping cut to shed water and as a reminder which end is the top 

  • Cut straight across at the base below a bud or pair of buds and dip the lower cut end in a hormone rooting powder (this promotes root formation, it also contains a fungicide, protects against rotting). 

  - you don't HAVE to do that bit

  
  

  • Prepare a trench outdoors in a sheltered site with well-drained soil. Dig in a bucketful of garden compost or other organic matter every square metre or yard

  - Or you can use a container - some gardeners say it's fine with roses to basically just shove the cuttings into the ground and leave them without doing the trench work.

  
  

  • Insert the cuttings into the ground or pot with two-thirds of the cutting below the surface, with a layer of sand in the base. The roots will form along the stem. A few buds remain above the ground to allow the plant to grow away in spring.

  • Allow 10-15cm (4-6in) between cuttings and 40cm (16in) between trenches 

  • Check after frosts and firm back if required 

  • Cuttings should be left in place until the following autumn ensuring that they do not dry out in dry periods in summer

  They can then be repotted or planted into their final position after that first year.
  
  
  Use gritty compost in the pots and keep them in a sheltered spot outdoors until rooted.
  
  alternatively if conditions aren't right at the moment but you're moving really soon and can't wait. You could take 10-12 cuttings and keep them in a pot of moist sand until late winter when it's milder and then plant them out in a trench or individual pots as described above

  East Yorkshire

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• *Astrantia* Posts: 307

  December 2018

  Ohh thanks very much for all that info Mr Vine Eye that’s good news! I’ll have to do them in pots so I can take them with me! Fingers crossed it’ll work 🤞

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• fidgetbones Posts: 17,618

  December 2018

  I have rooted hard wood cuttings of roses into deep pots. Just be patient, keep the pot in a shady place. keep watered in summer, then tip it out next winter and transplant your rooted cuttings. Do not try and transplant the rooted cuttings in summer, when they are in active growth.
  

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• Dovefromabove Posts: 88,147

  December 2018

  I agree ... deep pots (i used large tomato pots) and gritty loambased compost. 
  Good luck 

  
  Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
  
  
  
  
  
  

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