Rotting tips usually mean too much moisture in the rooting medium. You would be surprised how little moisture in the rooting medium is needed to get successful rooting. Secondarily, some varieties are tricky to get to root, while others root easily.

Rooting rose cuttings is a fine art. Keep at it and your success rate will increase remarkably as you learn the little 'tricks,' that lead to successful takes. Keep experimenting, and like Edison, you will become a pro at getting takes.

Moses

Does this happen on all your cuttings or just certain varieties? Some are harder to root than others. In general, when I’ve gotten top growth and no roots, it is because I used too mature of a stem. The best is when I’ve taken cuttings just below a flower that has just faded or is about to fade. Too mature and the stem is about to enter a growth cycle instead of growing roots. Too young and there is no energy to make roots or it is still in a growth cycle. It is also important that the parent plant has been growing with plenty if moisture. I’ve had good success using straight perlite, but I’ve also tried mixes of perlite with vermiculite, with sand, and with pumice or various combinations. I find that my cuttings rot in peat-based putting mixes, but I’ve read about others who have had success with potting mix.

Agree with too mature of a cane will result in top growth and no roots. My best success of rooting comes from 1st or 2nd flush, but never with 3rd flush.

Agree with 100% peat moss is bad for rooting (too wet and too dense). Recent years MG-moisture-control potting soil in my Chicagoland changes to more sawdust/barkchips to cope with the heavy rain here, and it's good for rooting if perlite is mixed in. Back in 2011 MG-moisture-control had more peat moss and I had zero luck with rooting back then, and had to buy pine-fines-potting mix.

Sprouting is not a good thing if it happens before the roots grow. On softwood cuttings, the longer you can keep the leaves on, the more likely the the cutting will root. Once you figure out how to keep the leaves on your cuttings, you rooting success will increase dramatically.

The humidity around the cuttings needs to be high, 80% or better. Temperature should be not higher than 90 F, 60- 80 F is better.

You need to use a potting soil that will maintain good pore space even when very wet. It's not too much water that drowns cuttings, but lack of air in the soil. Adding about 50% perlite may help help.

Exactly what others said above. I also always try to take a cutting with a heel from the previous stem where you deadheaded and the new growth is coming from. Then I make a filet on each side of the junction with an exacto knife before dipping it into the powdered rooting hormone. I have a couple of roses that are extremely hard to root (e.g. Westminster Pink, ultra-rare) which I have had less than 5% success with, so I'm now trying Hormex 16, as opposed to my usual Hormex 8. We'll see.

I highly appreciate all the helpful information!

I didn’t realize the cuttings with different flushes have different success rates. The one in the picture has been blooming continiously so it definitely had at least 2 maybe 3 flushes. Sounds like late spring is the best timing for rooting.

I used 0.1% which equals Hormex 1. That was the only hormone power available at our local store. I guess it was not strong enough. I will purchase Hormex 8 and try again this year. If it’s not working I’ll try again next spring.

For rooting hormone I use Dip 'n Grow at 1 part to 10 parts water, you can get it from Amazon. The nice thing about Dip 'n Grow is that you create the concentration you want to use by your dilution.

I use Dip ’n Grow also. Ive never tried Hormex, but now I‘m curious to do a comparison.

ValRose - what do you do with 30 more roses?!

@ValRose PNW Wa 8a and @noseometer...(7A, SZ10, Albuquerque) How does the liquid hormone work dor you? what is the success rate?

Certain roses are hard to root. Rooting roses in California is pretty easy because of our warm weather. However, I got 0% successful rate with one of my roses, so I tried the air layer method and it works really well. It shows big fat roots after 2 weeks. When you have a hard time with a rose, trying a different method may work. Helen

Straw, is MG-moisture-control potting soil in California mixed with perlite good for rooting? I don’t remember if MG-moisture-control potting soil has fertilizer or not. Helen

@bayarea_girl_z10a_ca sounds like a good idea. Maybe I should try that when it is still warm here. Thank you

@Cuteleier Z6 KS - the success rate is really dependent upon the rose itself (and other factors), not just the rooting hormone. I grow mostly Austins and for ones like Abraham Darby, or those related, and WS2K (off patent), I get 100% success, and have for years, every time, whether I use powder (Rootone) or Dip 'n Grow. I do find that the cuttings root faster and with more roots with Dip 'n Grow than with Rootone. Roses like Old Blush and Marie Pavie don't need rooting hormone at all, and I get 100% success (my friends tell me to stop giving them more roses). I got 50% success with my friend's Peace rose, and 100% success with the florist rose Freedom that I got from the grocery store. Some roses are more challenging, and from my friend's garden that I got the Peace cuttings from, there is a rose that I've gotten 0% success from, and I've tried three times this year. I'm not sure if it is the rose, or if it is the culture of the parent plant. I've had cuttings shipped to me from across the country that I've gotten 0-10% success, using Dip 'n Grow. The parent must be vigorously growing, and well watered to get a high success rate, and the maturity of the stem plays a factor as previously mentioned. It's not solely dependent on the medium, the hormone or the technique, although these are important also. By the way, my mother in California, gets nearly 100% success from winter cuttings, just sticking prunings in the ground there, with no hormone, and no other care.

Helen: MG-moisture control has fertilizer, but it's slow-released & tiny amount and doesn't hurt rooting (if diluted with more perlite). There are other people besides me who rooted roses with MG-moisture control potting soil, plus perlite for aeration.

I succeeded in rooting with MG-moisture control & perlite if I put the pots under a tree to block out heavy rain. I find that roses with large and glossy leaves (like Betty White, Evelyn, Bolero) can take a dense rooting medium like MG-potting soil and perlite. Below is a bud on 2-month rooting of Evelyn (in MG-moisture-potting soil plus added perlite):

Rooting is impossible with my alkaline tap water at pH 9, so I mix in acidic rain water to balance out the pH.

I get tired of watering rootings daily, so I prefer a glass Dome (Mason jar) over pre-wetted coarse sand in indirect light & out of heavy rain.

Sand is alkaline but I pre-wet it with acidic rain water so that comes out neutral pH. Our rain is so heavy that it rots rootings if exposed to rain. But you don't have that problem in dry CA.

Plastic jug over rooting doesn't work for my hot summer, it gets too hot, but glass Dome is cooler and allows more light in. The low-thorn roses like Yves seedling, which I failed to root, finally rooted in coarse sand with a glass dome. Low-thorn or tiny-leaves roses prefer a fluffy medium like 100% sand or 100% perlite. A friend rooted Jude the Obscure for me in hot & dry Texas with constant misting and 100% coarse sand. Jude is low-thorn and prefers alkaline sandy & loamy soil.

Thank you Straw. You always have the best answer :) Helen

@noseometer...(7A, SZ10, Albuquerque) and @strawchicago z5 Thank you so much for the detailed information.

These cuttings just keep on sprouting without any roots… That’s so strange… If I leave them like this for another month I’m wondering if they can make it.

Does this one looks like it’s going to root?

Cuteleier The cuttings are sprouting because they have no leaves. Cuttings with leaves usually delay sprouting until they grow roots. Cuttings without leaves sprout first, its the sprouting that uses up the stored carbohydrates in the cuttings that should have fueled the root formation, sprouted cuttings starve. If I remove the leaves from cuttings when I stick them, they sprout first and then mostly die before growing roots.

I suspect with the opened tops on the bottles, the humidity is not high enough for the cuttings to hold their leaves. After a few days, cuttings can no longer take up water through the bottom of the stem. To keep the cutting from dropping leaves, you need a high humidty. There should be condensation on the inside of the bottle otherwise your humidity is too low.

I am rooting in a greenhouse with a mist system and fan. My success rate is about 90%

noseometer...Most of my rooted roses are donated to a local historic farm for their plant sales. Others are give to friends and family. I used to root roses for a landscape company. Now that I'm retired I find I still enjoy rooting things.

ValRose - isn't it such a feeling of satisfaction to get roses rooted? I told the local rose club that I would be happy to root cuttings for their fundraising.

Cuteleier - that white part is called a callous, and is a precursor to root formation. It's a good sign.

I find that covering the cuttings such as in plastic bags or in bottles, the leaves turn yellow and drop off, the cutting is more likely to fail. I did a comparison once, and that's what happened. I too, have a mist system fans, in a Wardian case for my orchids and that works much better. Other people have had success with bagging or bottling, but it's never worked for me.

I like to say that "Roots before shoots and the cutting will thrive, shoots before roots and the cutting will die." Then I found an exception: with Old Blush, I once had shoots before roots, and the new growths died, but the old leaves stayed green and they did root after all. This is the only time it happened. ValRose is right: I once tried cuttings with and without leaves and the ones without leaves all died.

Straw mentioned that using alkaline water caused the cuttings to fail. Similarly, I found that using reverse osmosis water or even distilled water worked much better than my high-calcium pH 7.2 tap water.

I've said this before, but I think it is worth repeating.

Cuttings can smell fear.

Once they get that scent in their stomata, their only thought is to mess with your brain. So the first thing to do is chill. If it works, great. If it doesn't, you've learned something that didn't work. I would recommend starting with roses that are generally considered to be 'easy'. That would be most hybrid teas and floribundas, and anything of multiflora heritage. Yellows are often considered harder. I'm not a fan of yellows, so can't say from personal experience.

Start with a relatively proven technique. I started with glass jars outside, as my grandmother recommended. The recipe was about a trowellfull of sand, another of peat moss, mixed into a small hole. The cutting was put into the hole, watered in, then covered with a large glass jar. If the humidity in the jar dropped enough that the cutting could be clearly seen, it was time to water the jar again. That was long enough ago that 5 lbs of peanut butter came in large glass jars. I don't know anything that comes in glass jars that size anymore. So we switched over to 'the baggie method'. There should be a fair amount of information on the interweb about it. We used small peat pots filled with seed starting mix to hold the cutting. Then a couple of pots were put in a gallon baggie, the inside of the baggie is sprayed with water, then the baggie is inflated and sealed. Since we already had several light setups in the basement, the baggies were put there instead of outside.

I rooted roses for several decades before I heard of rooting hormone.

Many professional rooters remove the leaves before sticking the cuttings. If you don't, the leaves have to be removed when they fall off. We've always left them on, since the most we've ever dealt with was about 100 cuttings.

@noseometer...(7A, SZ10, Albuquerque) That’s a good point. I should have kept some leaves on it. I removed the leaves because some had white flies eggs at the back. I guess I could have cleaned the leaves first.

So far 3 out of 3 Fun in the Sun are all about to root and 10 out of 10 Queen of Elegance rotted. lol…

@mad_gallica (z5 Eastern NY) Thank you so much! I’m learning so much here. Highly appreciate all the turorials. I’m curious about the glass jar method and I’ll try it soon!

mad_gallica: "Cuttings can smell fear" is one of my all-time favorite quotes. And after almost 20 years of making rose cuttings (on and off), I believe it. I'll remember it every time I strike a new one from now on.

In So. Calif., I've had my best success in the late fall and winter. I use either the 2L bottle on top of the pot method (no cap), or the pot in a large baggie blown up method. Depends on my mood and the size of the cutting. Do be aware that there are 2.5 gallon bags (Hefty brand) that are particularly suited for this. I blow them up every day or two. Sometimes you need to let some of the moisture out of the bag if there's too much condensation; I just un-zipped three of my bags today and will re-zip them tomorrow.

Agree that a lot of it is cultivar-based. Some are so easy, some very resistant, with everything in between. I always keep the leaves, and have found that healthy leaves on the plant indicated better luck. Diseased or unhealthy leaves have a much smaller chance, IME.

The callous is good, and the first sign it's gonna take.

My tap water is 8.0-8.5, so next time I'm gonna try bottled water.

Cute...I was very nervous doing cuttings, so I read a ton...it seems that your climate (outdoors) or indoors will make a difference in soil and how you keep moisture in. I used https://tlcfocus.com/paulbarden/hulse.html texas rose rustlers instructions, but modified it because of my very cool climate I use bottom heat indoors. I do homex 8 with cinnamon 50/50, but I read if you use too much is actually stops rooting, so tap it off. I also read that timing is important, so use a rose that is in the just bloomed cycle. Right now I have 8 HT and a DA rooted, with 13 more looking good. That is after failing miserably and trying to find out why. (For my climate Frazier Valley Rose Farm youtube cuttings was really helpful.)