How to Start and Grow Roses From Home

Most varieties of roses that I grow can be propagated from cuttings that I take during the summer or fall.
Take 6 to 8 inch cuttings from the stem after the flowers have fallen in summer. Remove all of the leaves except one or two at the top of your plant. For easy rooting, stick the cut end into a potato. Then plant the cuttings, potato and all, with half of their length below the ground. Just water them, then invert a fruit jar over them. Remove the fruit jar the following spring.

Take fall cuttings after the wood has ripened well. Cut the stems into 8 to 10 inch lengths, remove all of the leaves, and plant the cuttings in a well protected sunny place with only the top bud about the ground. When freezing weather approaches, cover cuttings with a mulch of vermiculite several inches deep to keep the ground from freezing.

I grow roses from seeds. I let rose hips mature on the plant until they begin to crack open. I snip them off, and remove the seeds. I then plant in a prepared seedbed, cover lightly with sifted peat or sand, wather them and cover with clear plastic. Seeds usually sprout before a frost.
Once they sprout, I cover the young plants with jars, and mulch heavily at the bases to protect them during the winter. I then remove the jars in the spring, after all danger of frost has past. Plantes grown from seed may produce a few flowers the second summer after planting, but generally, do not blossom until the third year.