You're welcome, Lyna! Yes ma'am, each one HAS its own personality. It's observing them then determining what other "personalities" you want to mate them to that's part of the fun of breeding. If your cuttings are rotting, they're too wet. Whether that's due to too heavy soil, watering them too frequently or having too high humidity due to covering them, something is keeping them too wet, so they rot. If they shrivel, they're usually drying out. I'd not had success rooting roses in my new climate until I ran across the wrapping method, which I termed "Burrito Method" and detailed on my blog below. Like all the other methods, it requires tweaking to get it set just right for your specific conditions, but once you get the hang of it, the method works! A few months ago, I received bud wood of a rose I'd sought, from a lovely lady in Northern California. The wood was quite thin and I didn't know what exactly I could do with it. I had stocks rooted, so I tried budding it, then took what wasn't really suitable and tried a modified method of rooting. It was actively growing, and it was warm, so the wrapping method wouldn't work. I treated them as I would any cuttings, then planted them very deeply in seed starter mix, in gallon cans and placed them under other potted roses where they would have higher humidity, some filtered sun, but protection from the real heat and extreme sun. Most failed, but a few ARE rooted! Many of the buds also failed, but some are remaining green after a few months and appear to be successful. I figured by planting them deep, so most of the cutting length was immersed in cool, damp soil, they wouldn't dry out. It's what I do with callused cuttings out of the wraps, and it works perfectly with them. With only an inch or so of cutting poking out of the soil, and only a leaf or two remaining on them, they could provide some photosynthesis to help carry them along until roots formed. Once it begins raining, I will transplant them from their communal pots, lifting them to the level I want them to grow. Until then, I'll let them continue forming roots. The rains will help to harden them off so they won't be lost to being subjected to too high heat, too brilliant sun and too dry conditions too quickly. I'm also getting ready to break the tops of the root stocks so the foliage will remain attached to help keep them fed, but much of the sap flow will be interrupted so it is directed into the inserted buds, forcing them to begin growing. I use both the traditional "T" budding method and Burling's Chip Budding Method on several different root stocks so I hedge my bet with whatever I have and want to insure takes. Using several methods helps spread the risk of loss so chances of success improve dramatically. I use VI IXL, Cardinal Hume and Sequoia's Pink Clouds. I should also obtain some VI Dr. Huey and VI Ragged Robbin. I had the Ragged Robin VI from the Heritage Rose Garden, but lost it. I also have Dr. Manner's VI Fortuniana. It's finally put out enough thicker growth to provide some decent stocks next spring, so I'll probably start messing with budding to it then. If I have material I want to reproduce in the appropriate window here for rooting; I know it roots OK and grows OK own root; and it is of the appropriate condition for wrapping, I will wrap it. If it's summer, hence hotter (too hot for wrapping) and the material is actively growing, I'll try budding it. Whatever remains which isn't suitable for budding, I'll strike as cuttings to see if something works. But, if you wait until you have what you've been looking for, forever, to learn how to make the methods you want to use, work, you're guaranteed to fail. Murphy assures that. It's like waiting until the day before you take your world cruise to buy your new, elaborate camera you have absolutely no idea how to use. You're doomed. Rooting and budding are about equally as easy to learn. The hardest part is determining you are NOT going to allow it to overwhelm you. If it doesn't work, don't get frustrated. Put on your diagnostician's hat, figure out WHY it didn't so you can fix the problems, then get back on that horse to show it who's boss. Kim Here is a link that might be useful: Wrapping cuttings

Grafting involves two separate plants, joined together by grafting. The "bottom" is the rootstock, which practically speaking is relatively invisible. The "top", which is grafted onto the rootstock, is the plant you're after for your garden. The reason I explain what may seem obvious is that your question is answered by where you get that future cutting from off your grafted plant. If you use sucker growth from below the graft union, your resulting plant will be a clone of the rootstock variety. If your cutting is from above the union, you'll get a clone of the plant you want. You may be asking yourself (little Talking Heads reference there), "Why bother to graft a Japanese Maple top onto the same species rootstock? Why not just grow the plant on its own roots?" Often the pretty, garden-worthy "top" variety doesn't naturally have a vigorous root system, so a different, stronger-rooted variety is used for the "bottom". Different rootstocks can affect the ultimate size of the plant, too. Dwarf and semidwarf apple trees are produced by grafting normal tops onto dwarfing rootstocks. So you can see from this that cuttings you take from the top (which in grafting is called the scion, pronounced sigh-on) will be true to the variety you have, but may be somewhat unpredictable in its growth patterns when growing on its own roots. Hope this helps. Soeur

My experience with Dr Huey in my dry sandy soil is that the plants get stressed much more easily than those on fort. They also get more trouble with Nematodes which greatly reduces flower production. If you have a nice water retentive soil I am sure Dr Huey can do very well as well. But in my area where there is water restriction and there is no rain at all for the three months of summer, sometimes even longer, the roses on Dr Huey are not productive in the really hot months and they need much more water to show vigour. That's why I SP'd all of them, and I had quite a few to begin with as I was attracted to their cheap price. The ones on Dr Huey didn't die when it was hot and dry but they just sat there and did nothing until the rain came. I am not very patient and I need my plants to produce flowers all the time in order to keep me happy.

Hi Cori Ann, here is a link to the website. It's in Ireland, but I was able to buy the globes from a US site Cutting Globes. I haven't done anything yet, I was distracted by the stupid cold spell and protecting my roses from 22 degree weather. But most came through it fine, My Fortuniana has buds, so I think I'll try to do some regular cuttings after it finishes, that is supposed to be the best time. What my goal is is to take some of my existing roses that I love and may not be in commerce anymore and bud them on fortuniana. I am beginning to like that rootstock much better than Dr. Huey. I also want to do some hybridizing, so I will have to learn how to do cuttings if I want copies of any successful crosses I do. I have a bunch of those band pots, so I will gather them up and try to get them to root. I have a good spot in my yard that is shaded and I can hopefully get some success along with the cutting globes.