Connie's method works with semi-hardwood, I believe is the term, and that is using a stem with a spent bloom on the end. This spring I'm going to try some cuttings using the bottles and some in the styrofoam cups and see what works. Really seems to me like our Virginia summers are humid enough to make the styro cups work.

I don't know how long it takes to see the roots. I had some OGR cuttings in baggies that took a good 3 months to show roots. Probably depends on the type of rose.

Paaatience is a virtue, and dang inconvenient.

Thank you! And very true, I can barely wait the two weeks to check for callusing with the burrito method, since I am checking them every chance I get...

I did have great success last spring with the burrito method forming calluses, although only Oklahoma actually grew. I kinda feel sorry for the nursery people without fancy equipment. This propagation thing seems to take a fair amount of experimentation and different methods apparently work at different times of the year.

I think VA is more humid than NC and I don't do anything to increase humidity. I have tried making mini greenhouses and what I get is rot when I do that. I root all mine ( roughly 600 to 1000 a year) in the open air and have a high rate of success with that. No fancy equipment whatsoever. Also, I know a large rose nursery owner who uses no rooting hormone at all on her cuttings. People swear by their method but there is more than one. Climate matters but yours should be plenty humid.

That's encouraging! Not that I talk to that many people, but I hadn't heard of using the styro cups until
Roseseek posted info on the newspaper method. I'm glad the styro cups are cheap and easy to find. My friends really will run away if all my cuttings strike. Maybe failure is a good thing . . .

The answer to your question depends on what type of rose you are trying to root. I have had roots form on ramblers within three weeks ... and some OGRs take months. My champion fastest rooter so far is Petite Pink Scotch, which had branching roots within two weeks.

I readily admit that the most difficult part of the propagation method I teach is the "leave it alone for at least four weeks" part of the process. The advantage of using milk jugs as pots is that they are translucent and you can see the roots form on the side of the jug. I recommend that you leave it even longer than that. There is no advantage to checking and rechecking for roots. Put in the cuttings and you can look at them once a week, open them only to remove any fallen leaves, put the top back on, and forget them for at least another week.

Rooting roses is not rocket science, nor is it predictable. Have patience.

I've written before out here, and to me the simplest thing possible is to spend a few dollars on some clear pots. They are cheap and readily available on the internet. Next, spend $35 on a battery powed mister and another $20 on some misting lines. Wrap a Home Depot shelving unit with plastic to keep the mist from blowing around, and voila! Below is typical; 18 days from when I prepared this, which happens to be a cutting of Gardens of the World that Jerri Jennings sent me years ago. Coconut coir is my medium of choice. No need to disturb it at all, once the roots are this visible it can be re-potted and placed where it will get some mist. Usually I just run two shelves with cuttings, and use the other shelves for this.
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Now THAT is efficient and reasonably priced!

Very Nice MGleason!

My 4 1g pots filled with cactus mix and the cuttings I gathered a couple of weeks ago are putting out new growth. My first attempt at this, they have soda bottle caps and are in our green house. One one that was iffy if I should dip it in rooting powder or toss it is not doing much. I put 4 or 5 sections per pot hoping to have one do somethings...so far I am about 24 for 25...yikes!

Oh, to have that problem . . .

A few of my bottles are getting crowded with leaves. I figured I was going to have a bad success rate since this was my first try. I shoved 4 or 5 canes per pot and covered with a cut off soda bottle.

Now they are getting crowded...what to do? Look for bigger bottles?

Roots are what you need to see before you transplant them. It's possible you do have roots since you planted them about the beginning of May. I have seen a few posts that say tugging or checking for roots "too soon" has been the demise of cuttings. If the curiosity is killing you and you are willing to sacrafice one, you could carefully remove one cutting and its soil to check it. Have a new pot of soil ready, just in case you need to quickly transplant it. That's what I would do. Curiosity usually gets me. Well, except for the many times the creeping black death got my cuttings first.

Kippy, with your cuttings in 1g pots, you are doing what my friend Dennis does when he propagates. To cover the cuttings, he puts three or four small stakes into the soil around the rim of the pot and suspends a one-gallon clear baggie over them.

For everyone else, do NOT check on the cuttings. No tugging, no lifting, no pulling ... just leave them alone. If you are using clear or translucent pots, roots will show on the side of the pot soon enough, or the cuttings turn black, whichever comes first. When I teach propagation workshops, I clearly explain to my students that the 'wait and watch' part of the process is definitely the most difficult thing about it. I only open the container to remove any fallen leaves or black cuttings, then I put the top right back on and walk away.

I'm having good results so far this year ... I hope this is an indication of a very good propagation season overall.

Connie