Looks good Lou! I've got several that I started about 4 weeks ago. I'll pot them tomorrow and upload some photos too. I made my potting soil a few hours ago and since dinner was ready, I decided to come out of the garage and eat dinner with the family. I'm trying a new potting mixture this year after reading Al's comment on soil. I had a mixture of vermiculite and perlite so I added new zealand moss and chopped it up in about 1 inch strips. Right now I got the mixture soaking in some mosquito dunk water. Tomorrow morning I'll repot my cutting and keep them indoors till Spring. I'll post some pictures tomorrow. cheers, Dennis

Greening...I meant do you have other roses you might want to take cuttings from next year? I didn't realize phlox and rosemary rooted easily. I have a Nora Leigh Phlox that I would like more of and I might try that next year. I have enjoyed rooting things in the past. I still have two boxwood shrubs that I started from cuttings and one is huge now and the other one is a cute, full, one and half feet tall. Boxwood are very easy to start from cuttings too. Just a long wait for the shrub to be a useful size. I am going to try rooting annuals in the spring to increase the amount that I have for containers etc. next year. Lantana, geraniums, maybe a couple of sweet potato vine. See if that will work out for me. I hope you will have more time to garden this year, too. :-) pm2

HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY!!! I wanted to answer you about watering the cuttings... Cuttings love bottom heat. if you can find a place that you can place them on the hot concrete and keep them from rain, then you will have a good start!!! I see you are in a zone 8or 9? CA? This is a great because of the heat you should have already.. You can mist the cuttings every 7-10 days if you think they need some moisture on the cuttings. I see that you have them in a half soil half perlite? I would really keep an eye on not keping them wet or moist. They like to be dry when rooting. If you do see wrinkling, then mist them. cuttings are tricky when you first tart them, but honestly, they can be very easy too! Some of us are worry warts.. I believe a great lady who passed last year..KB was one that like to really fuss over her beloved tree, Some od us had read that we woukd tell he r to quit messing with them..LOL Shw was a wonderful lady!! she did a great job as well... I would try and protect the cutting...even if you just place them under a table in the patio during the summer months..They can tke 6-10 weeks to root. I place mine in the greehouse and placed them on the heat mat inside the black bins with the heatbg mat underneath I soaked the callased ends in b-1 and superthrive nd dipped into roottone and potted them upp. i do go aa lillte deeper than most. i jut like it have some stability in container. i also use rocks and other things tokep the stems from moving around, Bill has showns me of the soft items he cuts and places in his pots.. he cuts then to fit right into the containes and t works great!!! Way to go BILL!! as far as underwatering.. If you are unshure about underwateruing unrooted cuttings, go to Lowes and buy a cheap water meter nd ony water when it says that it is dry... or you could just use a dry swewer bambo stick and if it comes out clean and dry, then water. You will be surprised at the amount of water thr rooted ones will need and want. You will get the feel..dont worry!! Just be careful on the new cuttings.. If you can leave then somewhere that you can forget about them, they will do great..They dont like to be picked and pooked... LOL i always think of Bill when i give this speach!!! But he is sooooooooo right. Leave them be.. they can take 6-8=10 weeks to root. All of he rooted trees looks great!!! Good luck.. Laura

FWIW, I took my cuttings that I put in the wrong mix (half peat half vermiculite), and I brought most of them in for the winter. Some of these had lost all their leaves but stems were still green. I dumped off the peat/vermiculite (mix drains well but does not soak up water, it was very dry, don't recommend it at all) and saw they had each formed a very small callus but no roots except two that I had set in the north window inside in a ziplock bag. I figured I had nothing to lose, so I mixed a new batch of half peat and half pearlite that George Mander recommended, restuck them, did not dip them in more rooting hormone, recovered with the soda bottle, put them in the east window, finally took the cap off because I lost some from rot, and several have rooted with the bigger roots you can see through the plastic cup and are putting out new leaves. I tried my first batch in potting soil, I don't think I would use that unless I could get the brand George uses and set up a misting system under lights he has such success with. I think it is difficult to transition them without a healthier root system into potting soil, that is where you are likely to lose the ones you were lucky enough to root even if they aren't so fragile. Two that had skinny tiny roots about 1/2 inch long, many and spread out (north window inside ones), I did put directly in potting soil very carefully rather than the peat/pearlite medium, and they both have died. I suppose each variety behaves differently. A note about the east window. If these hadn't already lost their leaves, I would have put them in a shadier spot. The ones that do have new leaves now, I took the cap off so they can get a little ventilation and am watching them like a hawk. I don't know if I will be able to get them through the winter or not.