I've had varied luck rooting such cuttings by treating them with rooting hormone (Hormodin 3), sticking them to about 2/3rds of their length in uncovered quart or gallon pots, and placing them in a protected area out of doors. Over the years I've used fertilizer free potting soil, composted pine bark fines, or a mixture there of as the rooting medium. A fast draining medium is required as we get a lot of rain at this time of the year. The temperatures are generally balmy to warm and punctuated with occasional overnight lows in the high 20s.

Most teas and chinas root fairly easily under such conditions, with success rates usually above 50% and often approaching 100%. Gruss an Aachen and Pink GaA did spectacularly well - 100% success rates in both cases. Hybrid teas and hybrid musks tend to do well. Austins, noisettes, and polyanthas have been hit and miss, with some rooting easily and others poorly or not at all. Souvenir de la Malmaison and Kronprincessin Victoria, the only bourbons I've attempted, bombed out completely. I don't have any experience with the other classes you mentioned.

Hello Nick,

Last year was my first attempt to root dormant wood cuttings. I tried a couple of English, a rambler, and Hybrid Musks. I had little hope for success when I received what appeared to be dead sticks in the mail. My technique was similiar to Rosyone. I mixed 50/50 vermiculite and kitty litter in one gallon pots. I buried about 2/3 the length of the cuttings in the pot. I placed 8 pots in an opaque plastic storage container and put it in a site where it received sun all morning and late in the evening (my unheated greenhouse was already full). About the time my roses in the garden started leafing out, the dormant cuttings also broke bud. It was the easiest propagation method I have ever used. This year, when I pruned my one and only Hybrid Tea, I just stuck a couple cuttings in the ground next to the mother plant and covered them with the top half of a gallon juice jug, the buds are starting to swell.

I had acutally thought about contacting you to see if I could come get some of your "prunings", you have lots of roses of interest to me. I also am very unsure of my pruning technique and would like to observe a skilled rosarian.

Kathy - who is very much looking forward to attending your open garden again this year.

Kathy -

I'd welcome pruning companionship for a day, and you may squirrel away as many prunings as you have interest in. Hopefully, that will be sometime soon in the next 2 or 3 weeks since buds have begun to break on some varieties. However, the current cold snap this week 20 - 35 degree range should hold them back a little, but the 74 degree day on Monday did excite them a bit. Give me an e-mail shout to set something up if time permits. Best, Nick

I have been experimenting with dormant cuttings this winter, with mixed success. Out of boredom in early January, I decided to take whatever promising cuttings I could from the garden and see what happened. 50/50 mix of perlite and promix, some cuttings in my milk carton/soda bottle set-up, some in 6-packs in plastic storage boxes, under lights in my unheated basement.

I was assessing things earlier this week. Sally Holmes, Evangeline, and Mme Plantier struck roots in the storage box. About 1/3 of the other varieties croaked. Others are green, so there's still hope. In the bottles, some of the cuttings Moonlight, Prosperity, and Carnation are showing roots. So are Blaze, a found rambler (probably Spectabilis), and a few others that I can't remember right now (and I can't check on because I have a cat asleep on my lap.)

I have been fighting an outbreak of aphids in the winter cuttings that I don't have on the ones I stuck earlier in the year. I give them a bath in Safer soap solution every few days. I think the honeydew from the aphids is fostering mold that may be reducing my rooting success. Or it could just be that the winter cuttings of certain varieties just aren't programmed to grow roots well. It's a learning process, and I'm having a ball with it.

On a completely different note, the cuttings you sent this fall are fabulous. Out of 16, 11 have great roots and are breaking new growth.

Nick, if you're soliciting garden slaves, count me in. I'm available during the week, and I'd LOVE to give you a hand with anything, whenever you need it. I have rosy things the next 3 weekends (Charlotte, Lynchburg, and Staunton), but I'm available after that, or most times during the week.

Connie

Connie - Thanks for the info about your dormant cuttings and good to learn about your success. Did you use a high strength rooting hormone. I always welcome garden visitors, viewers as well as those who like to get glove close to the specimens. I am particularly happy to hear about your success with my working named foundling 'Bess Lovett'. Best, Nick