I find it difficult to cut for the house because I like so much to see them in the garden. I do find though if I cut roses that are not fully open and cut the stems a second time under water and then plunge them into water up to their necks before making a boquet it makes a big difference. I have sometimes made arrangements in Oasis. They seem to really like it and last longer.

Camps, I do like your threads lol. I just cut them off then re-cut under water and stick 'em in a vase. They last nearly a week, these are Teasing Georgia taken today picked a couple of days ago. I'm not very good at arranging the things, just like a bit of colour in the house.

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Every year at pruning time I end up with huge rose bouquets. We all get so much joy out of them, and every year I think, "Why don't I do this more often?"

I cut more bouquets now than in the past, especially in hot weather when the flowers just get ruined in a few hours anyway, and it's too miserable to venture outside.

Maybe it's just a matter of practice, like everything else?

I do cut a few for inside. I like to have a rose on the window sill above my kitchen sink...I spend a lot of time at the sink, lol. I'll cut them off as I go around dead heading or working in the beds and then re-cut them for the vase when I come in.

BTW, my Austins make great cut flowers. They won't last for a week but for a couple of days they perfume my kitchen nicely. The HTs, florries and shrubs will last a lot longer if you cut them a little tight but most of them don't have the fragrance. Rose de Rescht and Honorine de Brabant will last a couple of days but don't bother with Reine des Violettes because she gives up her petals almost instantly when you cut her.

I find that in the summer, in spite of air conditioning, the roses don't last much longer inside than outside. When it's cooler the roses can last three or four days but it really depends on the variety. That's when I like to cut roses for inside, especially when I know it's going to rain and the flowers will be spoiled.

Campanula, you don't have to get up at the crack of dawn but mornings and evenings are best for cutting and the roses do last longer that way. However, if you're lukewarm about the idea, why not just enjoy your armfuls of other flowers and leave the roses outside?

Ingrid

If I got nothing else out of showing roses, I did learn how to cut them for the house so that, with very little trouble, they'll last for several days.

There are some roses that just don't cut well -- Austin's Heritage is a good example -- but most of the Chinas fit in that baliwick, too. Leave 'em on the plant.

Even in our chaotic collection, though, there are enough roses that do cut well to let me make a bouquet of some sort, most of the time.

Jeri

Camp, I use rose vases (short, squatty vases with a lid that is basically a grid or has large holes in it). It doesn't matter how short the stems so long as they can reach the water or whether they nod or not as the base of the roses rest on the grid. It makes a really pretty old-fashioned bouquet with roses you otherwise couldn't put in a vase.

Sounds like most of your roses are not the good cutting kind so no wonder you prefer to leave them in the garden. I love my hm Buff Beauty but I've learned to leave her in the garden too - she doesn't last worth a darn once cut, and loses the fragrance to boot. Most of the OGRs and Austins are the same way. I grow some roses that are particularly good for cutting so I can leave the others alone. These do tend to be the exhibition type HTs.

Short stemmed roses can be floated in a bowl, or what I do is I cut a small piece of Oasis to fit in a shallow dish, and stick the short stemmed roses in that. They last a little bit longer than they would, that way.

I also tend to wait too long to cut a flower, and it falls apart fast that way; my other big mistake is to cut them while watering the plants - they're too dry to cut then, better to wait til the next day.

But if you're happy with what you're doing why try to force a change?

The only time I seem to have roses in the house is either after pruning, when I rescue any blooms that look OK from the mess, or for dinner parties.

I have a lot of teas, and the nodding blooms and not very robust stalks lend themselves to those crystal, almost spherical rose vases. I put a frog in the bottom, so I can shove each stem into it, because otherwise the weight of the bloom would immediately up-end it.

They will last longer if re-cut under water each day, but usually I can't be bothered. I enjoy the bouquet for the dinner party (I, also have learned to stop cutting way open blooms, which start dropping their petals by the end of the first course!). I just move the bouquet(s) into another part of the house when cleaning up, and am usually able to enjoy them for 2-3 days.

I like the blooms best on the bush, I guess. Any urge to "own" them up close is solved by taking pictures.

Jackie

The early yellows make surprisingly good cut flowers. We've had Father Hugo last almost a week inside. Spinosissimas are OK, though they don't look good after a few days.

I don't have many roses that make good cut flowers. But I have 8 rose glasses in various sizes, tall stem glasses with lids, and cut flowers without stems and put in water. They last long and the scent develops wonderfully inside the glass. These glasses were popular in the 50ies and 60ies and are out of fashion now so I get them cheaply unless a famous designer made them.

aha, Florida, of course, special vases (slaps forehead). A few years ago, one of the offspring bought me two silver 'thingies' exactly what you described - short bowls with a grid across the top. Being a bit of a philistine, I had no idea what they were for and tucked them at the back of a shelf. This might be what I need since the other thing which happens when I have tried a few roses is that they all fall back out of the vase.
I mention this now having seen quite a few rather nice posies (Zephy, I think seems to have a vast collection of little vases) and every so often, I think how nice it would be to have a little posy next to my bed (perhaps to camouflage the teeth).
The previous allotment owner planted a vast array of gladiolus which return year on year....and I confess, I have come to enjoy these flowers since even an idiot can stuff half a dozen in a pot and it looks dramatic.

I don't cut for MY house (unless company's coming. But I do cut for nearly everyone else's place. People who don't do roses think it's really special, and that's much more fun.

Just keep a cupboard in the garage with an assortment dollar store vases, and somehow the vases always find their way home, so you never run out. And nobody cares aout the arrangement. It's just a plonk of usually 6-8 stems.

Camp, another trick I've learned is to select vases that curve in at the mouth or get narrower at the top rather than flute out. That holds your bouquet in a tighter bunch instead of letting them fall away from each other. A narrow mouthed vase takes less blooms to look impressive than one that flutes out. You can also wrap a rubber band or piece of wire around your bouquet to keep them from flopping out.

I like to have a mixed bouquet. I put the short stemmed roses in front...easy to replace when looking kind of crispy.
Jeannie

I use old wine bottles. They're about as narrow as you can get at the top. They're fantastic for 1 or 2 blooms with short stems that won't work in any other vase.

Other than that, the only ones that stand up to cutting for indoors are usually the exhibition-type roses. Every now & then I'll go on a cutting spree, but mostly they are left a la shrub.

I use anything that holds water for a vase. Sometimes I make fancy ones and sometimes just plop those suckers in the vase and go. They do last much longer if you cut them in bud form. Most of mine last 2-3 days tops. A few do only last a day which is frustrating but I love bringing in roses every day if possible. Judy

This is one of my real favorites as a cut rose -- Austin's 'Prospero.'

Despite the continuing heatwave (3 weeks now) Prospero is blooming like mad. We deadheaded him, last evening, when it was just too hot to go inside, and I cut a bloom with a 10-inch stem -- well, it was stem-on-stem, but this ain't a rose show, so I don't care.

It was not quite fully open, and I brought it in and re-cut the stem, under water, at a steep angle to expose as much tissue as possible to draw up water. It's been sitting in the entryway for about 22 hours now, and it's just now fully open, and beginning to reflex backward. Even in this heat, I think it's good for maybe 2 more days, and that's good enough for me.

I like to pair Prospero in a vase with the Cl., Sombreuil -- the bloom forms are so much alike, and the colors work so well. The warm white is spectacular against the deep red.

Jeri

I cut roses from my garden for my sisters wedding and got a weeks worth of flowers by storing them in the refrigerator. Now I put the vases in the fridge each night and it helps them last so much longer. Putting a few drops of bleach in and recutting stems under the water helps too.

The really fragrant ones I cut and put into a bud vase beside my bed. I have a little sniff before lights out. Really, the only reason I grow em is to cut em.
But mine are so young I cannot take any stem! I tried all the conditioning stuff but realized it was too much to fool with (investment) and not enough return. So I just cut em outside, bring em in and cut under water, stick in vase and enjoy.

For me, I sit in a bullpen (like a cubicle) in an office, for about 60+ hours a week. The only way I get to enjoy my roses during that time is to bring them in with me. Sometimes I have 4 or 5 vases filled at a time(comprised of used plastic and glass drink bottles - favorites are Fuze and small starbucks coffee bottles.

I have cut rose "time-share" with a few of my co-workers. I leave them on my desk, and they bring them home with them in the evening - especially one co-worker who brings them home for her rose addicted husband.

Our current office is 5 floors, and customer conference rooms are on the ground floor, and many use that floor's restroom. Sometimes I leave a vase of roses in there for all to enjoy (women's only, I don't go into the men's!!!)