THANK YOU ALL for your wonderful responses to my post! I always enjoy sharing my experiences and photos with you all and getting your feedback. It sures helps with the winter blues to chat about roses and you are all treasured friends. For those who wanted to know how I went about the seed-starting operation, I kept it pretty simple, and anyone can do it. After collecting the ripe hips in the fall I immediately dug the seeds out of the hips, making sure to get all the pulp off the seeds and clean them well. I soaked them for a day or two in water with a little bit of hydrogen peroxide in it then put them between moist paper towels which I then placed in plastic ziploc bags. They stayed in the refrigerator for 3 months. I did not have any sprout during that time so I simply sowed them in peat pots using packaged sterilized seed starting mix. As for the flourescent lights I used regular shoplights suspended about 3 inches from the pots. I kept the lights on for about 16 hours per day/ off for 8 hrs. I had some germinations in as soon as 1 week after sowing which surprised me, but most seeds took about 2-4 weeks to germinate. As the seedlings grew I just kept adjusting the height of the lights, but made sure they were only inches away from the seedlings. I wasn't sure how well the seedlings would do just using regular flourescent lights but they didn't seem to mind that I didn't splurge on the more expensive grow-lights. Because the set-up was in my basement, the temperature was fairly cool but not cold. So that's basically it, nothing fancy or too scientific, just a lot of hovering over the pots and hoping and wishing. Thank you Patrick & Jim for the suggestion and encouragement to join the RHA. I did pop over there as a lurker during my seed-growing upon occasion but haven't in a while since I no longer have my setup going. Someday I hope to get back into it because I truly enjoyed it. For now, my mom who has Alzheimer's is living with us so that I can care for her and my grown daughter moved back in, and I lost all available space. It's a hobby I know I will get back into when space allows. Once again, many thanks for all of your words of encouragement. Celeste

I'm not familiar with their germination rate. I grew some about 15 years ago when I worked at a nursery in Vero Beach. They certainly were the coolest looking seedlings and plants I have ever seen. I had the joy of going to a nursery years ago in Punta Gorda that only sold Desert Roses and plants in the Adenium family. It was so much fun to see the different shapes and colors.

below this box...there are two lines...Optional Link URL: copy and paste the link you want to add there.. The next line down is whatever you want to name it...lizzy pics...dog site...myrtles cookie recipe...whatever you want to name your link! Sometimes it will only show up after you tap "Preview Message"...then you add it then.. Good Luck! hope I didn't confuse you even more!

Here are a couple more from this morning: Twilight Zone again, I like it's fragrance too. This is a pink rose that the builders put in. I have no idea what it is. When we moved in last summer it was a leggy mess, full of dead wood and black spot. I cut it way back during the winter and it's full of blooms now and much happier. Since we don't know what it is I asked my 7 year old what we should name it during one of our morning garden walks and he decided to call it "Delany" after his preschool "wife". Now every morning he has to go and 'kiss Delany'. That kid cracks me up.