Well Marion would you believe I had the same trouble with mine this year.
They all got leaves on them went black and died. I thought it may have been a weather thing,
Or I overwatered them due to that very hot windy spell we had a while back or they didn't get enough water.
If they stated growing you planted the right type of stick, we are at fault here I reckon so have another go later.
Last week while pruning up a bit I popped a few cuttings in the ground near the parent plant.
I will let you know how they go. Sorry got no pics...Cheers..MM.

Good day to you Marion
We have some useful photos which Anne has emailed you.You can post them here if you want to share them.We would do this but haven't been able to work with photobucket yet for some reason.A few common cultural no nos' can cause your cuttings to become infected with bacteria and go black.One is a combination of high temps and high humidity, another is too little light and another is over watered or poorly drained media. Yet another is too high concentration of fertiliser salts in the media.Allowing cuttings to dry to wilting point even once is the only other I can think of.
Unexpected heat waves like the one we had several weeks ago can upset your system if your caught unaware.
In our climate the best safeguards against this are to provide some even shading over your cuttings throughout the entire day (30 to 40% reduction in light)and water them enough to keep media moist.This would be at least once a day if your using a light well drained media.
As a general guide your propagation area should feel comfortable for you personally ie bright,airy and "relatively" cool.

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These cuttings are two node cuttings(2 buds) you can make them longer if you like. I used to use 3 to 4 node cuttings but can make avalible material go further with the shorter cuttings. Have also had just as much sucess with single node cuttings but not much to hold on too when you are putting them in tubes.
Hope theses pics help
Mrs Thrip Anne

Thank you for that The Thrips, I have been using everything from old to very young cuttings,
Amazing how many roots they get, how long does it take to get them to strike like that ?
Marion,

p.s. glad you have got the Photobucket going. Did you try irfanview.com as well ?

Hi Marion
(This is Thrip Mr)
At this time of year most cuttings are well calloused in two weeks and can send out a root any day after that.At three weeks we begin selecting the tubes for potting on and by four or five weeks only the last few will be left.They could be left longer if we have no room in the growing area etc but if thats not an issue than its best to get them out into pots with full sun and full fertiliser program immediately.
We don't use the bigger,harder material (Winter prunings) but some growers are (esp down south) and they seem to get good results although the period for root initiation is often much longer.I suppose it's one way to make use of otherwise wasted material.
Mr Thrip

Thankyou thrips - I am new to striking rose cuttings and will follow your method this season. I followed a method outlined on the Forum last winter, when I was busy pruning, and filled four large pots with likely (I hoped) cuttings. I used older wood that had flowered, about as thick as a pencil, with leaf buds along the stem, and hopefully, the stem was pulled away from another branch so that there was some heel at the bottom of the cutting. The pots stayed in a semi-shaded place, well watered, and now the fun is trying to pick what the rose buds will look like when they open - so far a Shady Lady, an Iceberg, some Fairy roses, and an unknown red rose from a Kmart bargain sale. The survival rate is well over 75%. Next year, I will keep the rose cuttings separate and labelled in their own pots. I am very wary of moving them yet, but they haven't much soil for such a lot of activity - Shady Lady is elbowing the others out. Now I will try the Thrips method and I'll keep each rose separate. Thanks for such a good description.

Hi Fairy vic:
Really interested to hear about your cuttings - winter I put in about 7 Blue Moon cuttings pencil-thick and about nine inches long and all except one are doing very well in a ten inch plastick pot. It is now about 15 months - do you think I could separte them into individual pots now as they look so healthy. I'd like to give them as gifts to fellow roselovers. Janine

Nows definately the time Janine.If there not struck by now they probably won't ever.Blue Moon will also strike from thinner material from under spent flowers as shown above but can take a couple of extra weeks to initiate roots as compared to your minis,chinas and hyb.musks.
Thrip

Hi Jannine.19 and Thrip - I think I will leave well enough alone and wait until next winter to move the roses, although Shady Lady is galloping along. Another unknown cutting, (pink HT, ever-flowering, 6 ft tall, healthy, from KMart) has emerged, which is good. I read the closer the rose variety is to a rambler parentage, the easier it is to grow, but I cant find out Shady Lady's breeding, apart from Meilland. I am following your method Thrip with some treasured trimmings from last week, and hope they succeed. I'll grow S.L. and the Icebergs along the garage wall, facing south, where I've set the homeless roses - they thrive and flower, except Lorraine Lee, which did not strike for me, either, so I'll move her into the full sun next winter and try to strike again. The Blue Moon plants sound lovely. I'm going to get one, despite the non-rose grower of the household's dislike of the colour, which I think is attractive. He'll never notice.

Thanks for the boost of confidence Thrip - I got excited last about 10 days ago and separated my Blue Moon cuttings. If anyone lives within driving distance to Belgrave in s-e Melbourne, let me know - I am happy to share my 5 Blue Moon cuttings which I have separated and they seem very healthy in 6" pots now. I have other roses on the way in July (aah, sigh)...Janine