I asked Kim Rupert the same question whether or not I should buy Yves Piage as own-root from RU. He said he had a hard time rooting it. Another person in my zone said own-root Yves Piaget is wimpy. It's best as grafted.

It rooted sporadically, with only three of the seven cuttings callusing. Only one has made it to the gallon size and it is not strong at all. Gorgeous, fragrant flower, weird bush (odd, angular architecture) and definitely better (not great, but better) budded. I wanted to propagate this for a friend whose mother planted it in another friend's garden, then used its flowers for her wedding bouquet. I thought it would be fun to have that rose, propagated from one her mother physically planted, in her own new garden, particularly as her mother has since passed away. I'll have to bud the danged thing to get it to her as a decent plant. Drat! Kim

Thank you Susan. Much appreciated! I wonder if the milder, more humid conditions of your climate have made him easier to root? The mother plant I've worked from is in the Santa Clarita Valley and I'm trying to propagate him in Encino, quite a bit warmer and drier than where you are in Santa Barbara. I wonder, too, if your successful cuttings have been soft wood from spring into summer, or later hard wood ones? I can only expect success here with wrapping hard wood in late winter to early spring/summer. Perhaps he doesn't store enough nutrients to permit that method to be successful? Not all will. Interesting. Thank you for sharing how he works for you! Kim

Kim, when I make cuttings that I'm really serious about, I usually do it after second flush (so definitely soft wood) and I get a "joint". I then filet both sides of the joint with an exacto knife, dip in rooting hormone and place in a band container. I water them, allow them to drain very well, then I place the bands in a 2.5 gallon size zip-lock bag, blow it up and place it on my back patio (dappled shade). If the bags deflate, I blow them back up. When I did Yves, I was only looking to replace my grafted plant, but ended up with extras which I gave away, so my take was that he was easy to root. That's really interesting about making hard wood cuttings there in a much hotter climate. Many folks from other states don't realize how incredibly different Calif. climates are, even microclimates. I spent the first 32 years of my life in Pasadena, and the difference is huge! Susan

We have been pretty lucky with our little green house. It is sandwiched between a couple of lemon trees and a persimmon, so it gets warm but not hot.

Knock on wood, but we are getting a pretty good rate of the little cuttings taking off. Just in a half full 1g with a soda bottle lid in the bigger green house

Yes ma'am, Pasadena to Santa Barbara is a couple of light years difference! Amazing what you used to grow, you can't now and vice versa, isn't it? Thanks. Kim

I wonder how it would do on Fortuniana...

I don't know about ROOTING it -- I've never tried.

We did, however, grow it for 4-5 years, on Huey. It grew reasonably well (tho I thought it never a pretty PLANT) but in all the time it was here, we saw ONE bloom actually open.

So, when that space was needed for something else, Yves departed, un-mourned.

(Once thoroughly dried out, rose roots make superb kindling.)

Jeri
Coastal Ventura Co., SoCal

I am so sorry you only saw one open bloom! They are wonderful! Our plant is little, but last week she had half a dozen blooms open at the same time.

Kim, "amazing what you used to grow, you can't now and vice versa, isn't it?" is exactly right!

I find Yves to bloom really well, both on my original grafted and my own-root. Even though I'm trying to reduce my herd, I'm always tempted to make another plant of Yves b/c I like it so much :-D

I don't blame you Susan. I fell in love with peonies when still a kid after becoming aware of them at relatives' homes in Pennsylvania. Each time I've encountered them as cut florist flowers, I'm that kid again, completely consumed by those amazing, incredibly scented blooms. I've never lived where they were even remotely possible to grow, so you can imagine my delight when I first encountered Yves shortly after its American introduction in the late eighties to early nineties. I HAD to try it and I hated it. Two friends and I bought plants and all three of us were terribly disappointed with how weak and diseased they were. All of us were very experienced in rose growing by that time and none of us found him enjoyable as a plant. All three were dumped. Fast forward ten or twelve years later when I came to maintain this plant in the garden I obtained my cuttings from and I now get to enjoy the flowers several times a month. When the idea struck me to propagate several as memorial plants to this friend's mother, it was only natural I should root one for myself. Only one struck. Fortunately, I hadn't mentioned the idea to her, so I'm not on the hook to perform. Ironically, this plant is in the same climate and as the original three, yet it grew and matured into a strong, odd and angular plant, but it does flower and seldom has any fungal issues. I still wouldn't want to use it for breeding, even though I love smelling and seeing those blooms when they're just right! Kim

As a So. Calif. girl, I had only heard about these legendary peonies, and have seen them as cut flowers since. Yves is supposedly the closest in form to them in a rose. Jacob Maarse, legendary Pasadena florist, loved Yves so much that he planted a huge batch of them at his home in Sierra Madre to cut for his store. Which is quite remarkable when you think of a very successful florist doing that! Those of a certain age who have Pasadena connections will remember Jacob Maarse.

You know on Paradise Rd, just before the ranger station there are some Ca Peony plants.....though rather different than the ones you might see in the florist shop

Our Yves plant is not so much to look at, but the flowers sure are. I was hoping to root a couple and hide the plant between others.

Thank you Jeri and Kippy for 2 different inputs on Yves Piaget. Kippy water is close to neutral in pH, and Jeri and mine water are alkaline, over 8 pH. I don't know if Kippy grows Yves Piaget is loose acidic potting soil, or if she grows in her clay soil.

Paul Neyron had many blooms, but they balled. So I dug him up and found hardened clay soil which restricted his roots and there's zero oxygen down in that "cement block" which enclosed his root. So I put him in a LOOSE potting soil with 55% FINE composted pine bark and he is 100% healthy.

I was hesitant about buying "Crimson Glory" as own-root band after Jeri reported about it being wimpy for her. I was surprised how vigorous Crimson Glory is in my clay soil mixed with pine bark mulch, it does even better with acid fertilizer high in nitrogen. Crimson Glory mildewed for a few days from the nursery, but with my water high in lime (calcium), it's 100% healthy, no blackspot nor mildew.

Mary Mag. did break out in mildew when I gave it too much chemical fertilizer. The salt in the fertilizer induced mildew on Mary, no matter how much water given. I had to scrape off the excess fertilizer, getting all her leaves wet with my well-water, before the mildew cleared up. It dawns on me that Jeri's water is saline (high in salt), which could make mildew a problem in a dry climate.

Strawberry,

We don't buy a lot of potting mix-just enough to start seeds in January and a bag of cactus mix for cuttings. We do have our own compost bin full of leaves, horse manure and other good stuff.

That being said, Yves is growing in some hard slimy clay that we could only til up when wet. Even then it comes in massive chunks that we use the back side of the shovel to crack. It did have a lot of composted horse manure added to the bed prior to planting roses.

The addition of the compost has made a big difference in the quality of our soil. We do not rely on certain chemical/fertilizer amendments to change it.

It does not hurt that the horses we gather the manure from eat alfalfa.

Thank you, Kippy, for answering my questions promptly. I'll make another trip to the stable to get more horse manure before it rains again here. The below values of horse manure are at the high ends, you can see it has a good amount of calcium to prevent balling, iron for dark green leaves, and potassium to fight diseases and bloom production:

Here�s the horse manure composition listed by http://esc.rutgers.edu/publications/stablemgt/E307.htm

From an average out of 30 samples, they are: pH 8 to 8.7 (stables use lime to deodorize their stalls). Nitrogen of 0.8, Phosphorus of 0.55, Potassium of 1.19. Calcium of 1.13, Manganese of 135, Zinc of 52, Magnesium of 0.26, and Iron of 3614.

Here is a link that might be useful: Horse manure composition

Strawberry, it is good you can find out what your horses and stables are using.

For me it is easy, I feed the horses for my boss occasionally and buy our chicken feed the same place they buy their horse supplies. We do get a few weeds, since they have a pasture to graze in some, but mostly dock so easy to spot. More work than visiting the local stable though.

You might want to look for a stable that does not use lime since you have such an issue with it to start with. Not every place does the exact same things. FYI if you are putting it in your compost bin, you also need to know the horses worming schedule