Growing roses from cuttings
Commercially available roses from garden centres are usually propagated by a particular form of grafting called budding or more precisely T Budding.
It always surprises people that you can easily grow roses from cuttings. So why does commercial production use grafting. The answer is in three parts. Firstly growers can easily plant out many thousands of rootstock cuttings without worrying about how many of each type of rose they need. Secondly using budding requires only one live bud from a rose to be grafted meaning that over 5 times the number of roses that can be propagated this way than by cuttings. Simple economics of supply of good quality bud wood will give many more plants and increase the volume available for sale. Thirdly growers can grow large quantities of different rootstocks providing different growth patterns to best suit the market.
The rootstocks are all grown from hardwood cuttings placed directly into the ground when growth is dormant in late summer and winter. We can do the same for rose varieties we want to grow ourselves.
During the summer select and mark the roses you would like to propagate.
In winter when pruning is required go to your preselected plants and identify lengths of first year young growth and remove with sharp secateurs. Just below a bud at the bottom of the cutting cut it horizontally and cleanly. About 200 -250mm up the stem find a good strong bud and cut at an angle just above the bud as you would when pruning. Now you have a hardwood cutting and by the angle of the cut you know which is the top and which is the bottom of the cutting.
Choose a cool, moist, shaded place in the garden (in NZ preferably on a south facing fence) and cultivate the soil. Dig a narrow trench about 120mm-150mm deep and place some sharp sand in the bottom. Carefully place the cuttings (bottom down) in the trench and back fill the trench so the cuttings are 2/3 under the soil and 1/3 above the soil. Water in to consolidate the soil.
Leave these alone for some months but make sure they do not dry out. In mid to late spring you should observe some of the buds breaking and growing slowly. Hopefully it is developing roots at the same time.
In Autumn carefully dig deeply to remove the living plants and plant out in your garden. At this stage they may need a trim to control their growth.
Once growing well the next summer normal pruning can be done.
It always surprises people that you can easily grow roses from cuttings. So why does commercial production use grafting. The answer is in three parts. Firstly growers can easily plant out many thousands of rootstock cuttings without worrying about how many of each type of rose they need. Secondly using budding requires only one live bud from a rose to be grafted meaning that over 5 times the number of roses that can be propagated this way than by cuttings. Simple economics of supply of good quality bud wood will give many more plants and increase the volume available for sale. Thirdly growers can grow large quantities of different rootstocks providing different growth patterns to best suit the market.
The rootstocks are all grown from hardwood cuttings placed directly into the ground when growth is dormant in late summer and winter. We can do the same for rose varieties we want to grow ourselves.
During the summer select and mark the roses you would like to propagate.
In winter when pruning is required go to your preselected plants and identify lengths of first year young growth and remove with sharp secateurs. Just below a bud at the bottom of the cutting cut it horizontally and cleanly. About 200 -250mm up the stem find a good strong bud and cut at an angle just above the bud as you would when pruning. Now you have a hardwood cutting and by the angle of the cut you know which is the top and which is the bottom of the cutting.
Choose a cool, moist, shaded place in the garden (in NZ preferably on a south facing fence) and cultivate the soil. Dig a narrow trench about 120mm-150mm deep and place some sharp sand in the bottom. Carefully place the cuttings (bottom down) in the trench and back fill the trench so the cuttings are 2/3 under the soil and 1/3 above the soil. Water in to consolidate the soil.
Leave these alone for some months but make sure they do not dry out. In mid to late spring you should observe some of the buds breaking and growing slowly. Hopefully it is developing roots at the same time.
In Autumn carefully dig deeply to remove the living plants and plant out in your garden. At this stage they may need a trim to control their growth.
Once growing well the next summer normal pruning can be done.