They sell cuttings of their roses, and while they sell rather inexpensively, the shipping from CA here is rather expensive. Unless you really know how to root cuttings, I'd stay away.

so where do i get the details? might be a lot of fun to try.

Here you go charleney:

Here is a link that might be useful: UC Davis Foundation Plant Service

Hartwood roses has a step by step on how to root cuttings. Seems pretty easy, the site is www.hartwoodroses.com/How-To/RootingRoses/RootingRoses.html

Before you invest money in buying cuttings to root, try to root a couple of cuttings from your own roses (or your neighbor's roses) and consider it a learning process. It took me a good year to figure out exactly what was needed to get them to root in my climate. For me it requires a mister -- the put roses in a baggie and forget it (or under a cloche/mason jar/soda bottle) method only gets me dead cuttings.

Kathy

Those are wise words from Kstrong. Rooting cuttings has definitely been a trial-and-error proposition for me -- especially with modern roses. I'm not sure why there's a difference, but while I've finally begun having a moderate amount of success with OGRs, the majority of my attempts with HTs have been a waste of time and effort.

It's different for everyone. Misters didn't work at all for me, soda bottle terrariums were so-so, but sticking them up to the tip in poor soil on the north side of a wall works great.

You have to find out what works for you. It's like getting to Carnegie Hall: practice.

Having worked in an azalea/rhododendron production nursery earlier in my life (and having spent most of my time doing propagation of both), I enthusiastically agree with kstrong!

As cuttings go most garden roses don't have a reputation for being particularly difficult to root, but it is still a skill best acquired with some practice! There can be a very significant difference between taking a stem cutting of a new stem, taking a stem cutting of a recently hardened off stem, taking a stem cutting of a stem that hardened off last season, taking a stem cutting of a stem that hardened off two years ago, and doing all that with either a cutting from the stem tip, or from further down on the cane. Each possibility may work differently for you, and each has its own techniques for successful rooting of that particular cutting.

Just wondering if anyone has actually tried their cuttings? What was the quality? Service?

That's a good experiment, York Rose.

An alternative baggie method a friend showed me is to use the Jiffy peat pots. If you get the tomato refills, they quickly plump to about 4 inches tall and the netting keeps the soil together. I also tried peat pots, but they are kind of fragile when wet and then you need to stuff in the damp soil. Speaking of soil, a seed starter mix with perlite (not vermiculite which will bog the soil) seems to work really well, I found some by Ferry-Morse at Lowe's (they also now have the peat pots). Before I only used a fine mulch and I think that was a bad no-no. You can fit two 3" peat pots or four tomato refills into a gallon Ziplock bag.

He also mentioned about acid water working much better than alkaline as a friend of his up in northern Ca can simply put the slips in a jar of water and get roots pretty quickly. Since we have water hard enough to stand up a spoon, I played around with some pH sticks and vinegar to figure out how much to use to simply buffer the water to get it to just under neutral. It didn't take much vinegar at all to buffer a gallon of water.

In my limited experience with this method, I am having a lot of fun. Out of 100 or so slips that have been in for a month now, I've only lost one so far. One other thing to be careful with the bags is not to have the leaves touch the side of the bag cuz that moisture will make them soggy and rot. I wound up taking most of the leaves off of my slips. In order to keep the bags upright, I had the idea to use bamboo bbq skewers but these got moldy so not a good idea. If you have a bunch of the bags in a plastic container they seem to keep themselves upright. Now that I'm having so much fun, I want to get around to looking for some Sterlite bins that are tall enough to use the pots without the bag, otoh, if I do that, I'll have to be careful to label each one instead of the bag.

Oh, temps? For this experiment I've simply had them in the garage which stays about 50-ish even at night when it's cold. It will be interesting to see if my luck changes for the worse when it gets warmer.

Correct Ph for your roses is definitely something that makes a difference in how they perform whether it is rooting cuttings or germinating seedlings, potting them in containers, or even planting in the outside rosebeds. Roses need a Ph of 5.5-7.0 to be able to thoroughly utilize the nutrients in the soil. Otherwise, they are "blocked up" and don't grow as well. You will be amazed at the difference having the correct Ph will make for your roses.
You can get Ph meters and test kits on the internet at many places and it is well worth the investment when you see the quality improvements it provides.
I check the Ph of the soil and adjust accordingly. You can get Ph adjusting items on the internet as well. I bought a Ph meter for about $35 and it works quite well. I also bought a kit for soil with a small plastic container and some capsules that you empty into the soil/water mix in the container and compare color to the Ph level chart provided with the kit. It is super easy to do and only cost about $5 and you get 8-10 capsules for testing using one for each test.
John
I generally find I have to add acid to my soil and water because it is too alkaline, but every place is different.
Believe me, adjusting the Ph of your soil and water is well worth the small investment of time and money and the difference in vigor and health and blooming of your roses will amaze you immenseley. Give it a try...
John

The quality and service are fine. There is paperwork to fill out so make sure it all all correct before placing your order. Again, shipping to NY is going to be really expensive, so pepare yourself if you are intent on going this route.

There is a $25 minimum order charge, but that is only 10 cuttings. I'd suggest ordering 5 cuttings each of a few varieties. I can usually get multiple starts off each cutting they send. I sell the extra's I have to cover the cost of getting these from UC-Davis.

Here is a link to a rose I got from UC-Davis. This is Woburn Abbey, a FL mostly sold in Australia now.

Here is a link that might be useful: Woburn Abbey @ HMFR

Mgleason,

Wow, that's really great that you're able to sell those extras to cover your costs.