Bump

Kim? Paul? Jeri? Anita?

Is this lack of response a bad sign Claire? There are some differences from growing other roses that is for sure. I know the no recommended pruning issue is very different.

With my teas, I get about 50% by simply sticking softwood cuttings in mid-summer and ignoring them. Generally it's a pruning mistake that I stick just for the heck of it. My climate is very humid so I literally just stick 'em and put them in a shady spot then walk away. My Rootone jar is probably 20 years old so no special hormone. Sorry I can't give a scientific response - perhaps one of our nursery friends has better advice.

Black sticks sounds more like too wet paper to me. George Washington Richardson (identical to Mlle de Sombreuil from how both grow here for me) and Faith Whittlesey are the two Teas I have wrapped and rooted. Both worked well for me here.

I have had very good experiences rooting tea roses. However, when I carefully tried several using the burrito method, I had 100% failure, so I have not tried that again.

I use the "get one cup of potting soil, add one cup of water, and wring it out" method. You have the soil in a one gallon zip lock bag. You use rooting hormone on your cuttings, then you put in your cuttings into the damp soil in the zip lock bag,, so that you can zip the bag over them. You spray a bit of water mixed with a drop of liquid soap into the bag. Then you inflate the bag, and put it somewhere out of direct sunlight, but with plenty of light (I use an upside down small aquarium glass box on my glassed-in back porch). You open the bags for fresh air about every 2 weeks, and re-inflate them. When roots show through the plastic at the bottom of the bag, I pot them up into small pots and leave them in the aquarium box for a while. Then harden off, and put into a 1 gallon pot for several months prior to planting in the garden. Works on about 50% of the cuttings.

Jackie

Right out of the old Mel Hulse "Rose Rustler's Took Kit", except for the dish soap twist. When I was propagating in the Santa Clarita Valley, where there was NO humidity and lots of heat, I did similarly, though I planted the cuttings in peat pellets and inserted them in to the ziploc bags, then inflated them. I squeezed the excess water from the moistened pellets and didn't add any extra water to them before inflating and sealing them. They were stood inside a large aquarium like books on a shelf, to prevent the wind from blowing them over or away and covered with a screen lid to keep the squirrels and other rodents out of them, then placed on my north facing balcony where I could limit access to and keep a close eye on them. They rooted very well in those conditions with that method. After I moved to Encino, where there was almost the same heat, but with a great deal more humidity, no matter how I varied the method, anything covered, quickly became encrusted with long, hairy, gray mold. That's where the wraps were tried and honed to give the success they have. But, not every method works everywhere, for every person with every rose. You have to experiment with a lot of them to figure out what works best for you, where you are. Like "kissing a lot of frogs...."

Thanks for the hints all. Here in the almost always very humid Pacific Northwest the ziplocks are a no go...but winter rooting of pre-callused hardwood cuttings, in a cold frame, on a north facing wall has been very successful, and the few teas that actually callused are green and swelling buds a bit in the frame...but getting to the callus part has been uphill. I have trial batch #2 to check next week, so will see if some modifications are working out. Mons Tillier is in that batch Kippy, so hopefully he will respond as well as yours have. I will be using drier paper on the next batch, as well as some other suggestions I have received from other Rose rooting pals. Hopefully will have a good update one of these days!

Cheerio

claire

Sorry to hear Kippy, hopefully some will strike. I am unwrapping my test bunch today. Hoping for success!

cheerio

claire

Traditionally, it seems if nothing calluses but they remain fresh, they were held a bit too cool. I am holding mine an additional week this year to see if that helps. Two weeks is optimum, but three can work, though for thinner and weaker things, it can be counter productive. Many of these are thick pieces of seedling climbers I want to try as stocks, so it may be beneficial. We shall see.

Congratulations!

Claire, I haven't burrito rooted many Teas, but I have burritoed Chinas with some success. Maybe I was just lucky or the climate was just right.... I recently rooted my Duchesse de Brabant by layering. Ditto with a couple of Bourbons and Multifloras and Stanwell Perpetual. I'm going to experiment with more types of roses to see how layering works for them. Carol

Layering is often the most successful method of propagation for many types of plants. Ever try to root a juniper? Layering is such an easy way, the blamed things do it themselves. Trying to root juniper cuttings without using mist is far less than "hit and miss". As with any propagation method, some genetic types are always going to be much more successful than others. Some types simply root more easily than others, period. Some types have thicker, more developed cambium layers than others. Multiflora and Wichurana types are always going to be easier to root than many others. Chinas are often not that difficult, as are minis, which are supposed to be based heavily on "China" types. Teas, in my experience, even under ideal conditions and regular mist, have traditionally been the more hit and miss type to propagate. They are also the type which for many, have been the slowest to establish themselves and mature, as well as the type most resistant to hard pruning, compared to many more modern roses as well as a great many older "classes". Layering, or "air propagation" can work quite well, as long as it's done properly and nothing disturbs the process while it is being done. In many gardens, it just isn't as easy to deal with as removing the cutting and putting it where it can more easily be dealt with.