Growing Roses From Cuttings



What works with many plants works with roses as well: Growing roses from cuttings is an easy way to propagate your favorite roses

Roses From Cuttings

Although many rose experts think roses should be grafted to get the best results, for amateur’s propagation by taking cuttings is probably the better choice.

Growing roses from cuttings is an excellent way to get specimens from fellow gardeners or to increase the stock of your favorite roses.

Although I do not recommend this method for most Hybrid Teas, it is a good way to propagate vigorous varieties such as Ramblers, Climbers, Floribundas and many Shrub roses. Weaker-growing rose types are best propagated by budding.

Own root roses, which we will get from cuttings, have some advantages to budded plants:

  • They do not produce suckers; all shoots are equal to the variety you grow
  • They show increased winter hardiness

Growing Roses From Cuttings – The Methods

Cuttings can be made in two ways:

  1. Semi-ripe cuttings
  2. Hardwood cuttings

Reading books, magazines or any recommendation about growing roses from cuttings the semi-ripe cutting is what they bring up.

A higher percentage is likelier to succeed by this method than by hardwood cuttings.

Semi-ripe Cuttings

Take rose cuttings any time from late spring to late summer, when the wood is semi-ripe.

What does semi-ripe mean for cuttings?

It means to choose a still green and flexible side shoot that already turns woody at the base.

Here is how it works…

  1. Select a side shoot (6-8 inches long) and cut it above an outward-facing bud. The shoot should have about the thickness of a pencil
  2. Trim the cutting at the base at a very sharp angle, just below a leaf joint or a bud eye. Use only very sharp knives
  3. Cut the soft tip (1/4 inch above a bud eye) and remove all the lower leaves and thorns (if any), leaving two or three leaflets at the top of the cutting
  4. Carefully scrape off the bark 1 inch at the bottom of the cutting by scoring the bark on each side of the stick.
  5. Dip the base of the cutting about 1 inch in a liquid rooting hormone such as Dip n’ Grow, and tap off the excess
  6. Punch a hole and insert the cutting up to 2/3 of their length into a small peat pot with wet sterile rooting medium. Then gently firm the soil with your fingers. The rooting medium can be an inert mixture of peat and sharp sand
  7. Spray the cutting with a solution of copper fungicide to kill off any fungal spores
  8. Make a misting tent for the cutting by simply misting the plant with water and placing a clear plastic bag with a few airholes over the pot. Support the bag with canes or wire hoops to prevent the bag from touching the leaves

Done? Not at all.

Semi-ripe cuttings need special care until they have rooted. They need a warm and sunny place but no direct intense sunlight.

Best would be an area with morning and afternoon sun but shadily at midday (north side of the house).

Cuttings have no roots. That’s why they need moisture through misting the leaves several times each day. If you forget to mist them, they will die.

  • Remove the plastic bag
  • Plant the whole set, peat pot and cutting into an 8-inch pot filled with organic potting soil. The peat pot must be completely buried
  • Place the container gradually into the sun. A little longer each day for the next two weeks, until it gets sunlight for at least 6 hours a day.
  • Keep the young plant well watered and never let the soil dry out

When the plants start to grow and are about the same size as you would buy them in shops, it is time to plant them out. Use my guides for planting roses, to be sure how to do it right.

Hardwood Cuttings

Although it seems this method is not well known among gardeners, I think taking hardwood cuttings is easier because this method does not require any special equipment and knowledge, also aftercare is minimal.

Sharp pruners are the only tools you need for hardwood cuttings.

Always cut a few sticks more than needed, if one or another does not grow.

Here is how it works…

  • Cut pencil-thick canes from the rose in fall
  • Remove the soft tip above a bud eye.
  • Trim to a length of about 9 inches by cutting the base at a sharp angle below a leaf joint
  • Remove any leaves on the cane
  • Dip the base of the cutting about 1 inch in a liquid rooting hormone such as Dip n’ Grow
  • Place the cutting in a prepared trench, leaving 3 inches above the soil surface. Firm in and water the cutting well

The trench for hardwood cuttings should be 10-12 inches deep and filled to 1/3 of its depth with sharp sand.

The following fall the hardwood cuttings should be well rooted and can be transplanted. If not, allow them to grow on for another year.

Use my guides to planting roses for that procedure.

One word to legality of growing roses from cuttings:

it is not allowed to grow patented roses without permission from the breeder. But you can grow older roses (older than about 20 years), old roses and species roses without permission.

Where To Go From Here

Rose Propagation from SeedRose Propagation from Seed


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