10 weeks and my first flower bud

All I can say is wow! Ten weeks have gone by since I started my first batch of rose propagations and yesterday I noticed the first flower bud! I honestly never expected to see this till the Spring time. Hopefully this is a sign of things to come.

As for the other cuttings,many are still experiencing great growth while others still continue to be slow about it. I started misting the other day with a small amount of Miracle Grow for roses added to the water to give them a boost of energy. I have also lost a couple more, one do to my "experimenting" and two others to I guess damping off.

Anyways, here's the pic of the new bud:

Rose Propagating in August

I know I said in my last post I'd be making another batch of rose cuttings for propagation, but it seems I've either been too busy or it's been too hot! This last week was the hottest of the year here in NE Florida, and unless I've been at work or in the pool I havn't been outside much. Combine that with back to school preps for the kids it's been pretty hectic!

So hopefully by Monday I'll have 45 new cuttings in propagation medium that will turn into 40+ new plants in a few months. The first batch is still doing well with tons of new leaves emerging on the majority of them, and I've still only lost 4. Much better results than my previous attempts this year! Hopefully I'll have the pictures up so everyone can look at my method and replicate it if they desire.

New Rose Propagations Doing Good

Well last Monday I returned from vacation. Before I left I setup a timer for the light system to ensure the plants were getting the required amount of light while I was gone. Only thing lacking was an automatic watering system, so I ensured there was enough moisture in the tub to hopefully sustain them.

Needless to say when I returned I was shocked. Most of the rose cuttings had lost there leaves. The timer had malfunctioned and was not operating correctly, and to top it off I had an infestation of spider mites!

So after cleaning out all the dead leaves, I was left with a bunch of green, leafless sticks. However, the good part is that they were still green, and thus there was still hope for them. I returned the timer for one that worked properly, misted them and left the rose cuttings to there own.

Needless to say after another week almost a dozen of them have new leaves growing from the emerging buds, and man more have new buds developing! I'm very happy that they are starting to show signs of life and that all is not lost. I will be starting the process over again next week with another batch of cuttings, hoping to duplicate the process.

So far to date I have only lost 4 of the original 45 cuttings.

Propagating old garden roses

This coming Monday will be 4 weeks since I started propagating roses again. This time I started with an old garden climbing rose named Cecile Brunner. I planted this one at my Mom's house and it has nearly taken over her whole front porch, and since it needed a trim I figured I'd try my hand at propagating this one first.

I decided to use the tub and florescent light method and move the rose propagation setup indoors where the temperatures were more controlled...and mostly not too hot! After much research I determined that I needed temps between 70 and 75 degrees for optimal rooting, and that is exactly what I have indoors. I purchased a large, clear storage bin from a local store, and had a set of florescent lights in my garage that I took down for this purpose. The containers for each cutting I already had from previous growing and propagating so I was set there.

For the propagation medium I used a 50/50 mix of peat moss and perlite. Then the cuttings were trimmed so that there were still two sets of leaves and leaf buds. The bottom area of the rose cuttings was scored and dipped into a mix of Dip N Gro, then put into the containers filled with the propagation medium, then each container placed into the storage bin. All told I had room for 45 rose cuttings in the tub.

After misting the rose cuttings the bin was then covered and placed under the florescent lights, with the lights being above the clear lid about 9 inches. I continued to mist the rose cuttings daily and they were under the lights between 12 and 16 hours per day. After almost 4 weeks I have lost just one cutting, and I also just found out that I put one in upside down...not good. Otherwise many of the rose cuttings have new roots coming out the bottom of their containers and new growth appearing. I'm anxious to truly see how many new plants I get form the method, and after vacation next week plan on expanding my operation with another set of lights, more tubs, and numerous cuttings of the other old garden roses in my backyard.

Antique Garden Roses

Continuing from my previous post, I was successful in propagating a few roses, seven total in 5 varieties. The varieties are Cecile brunner cl, Old Blush, Prosperity, Loius Phillipe, and Hi. Teo I planted at my mother's house and the others I planted at my house in NE Florida.

Much to my surprise all but one of the plants has performed marvelously with very little care. Through the heat, humidity, sandy soil, and virtually no fertilizer they have continued to produce blooms for the last several years. Also, unlike most modern hybrid roses, these antique garden roses are pretty much pest and disease free, suffering no Black Spot issues what so ever, which is the most common and hated problem with most modern roses!

So if you are a rose lover but sick of fighting disease then I suggest you look to the past and plant some old garden roses in your landscape. The majority of these roses propagate readily from cuttings, and with the right system you can produce many plants for for free. Rose propagation is my current obsession and I'll be making more posts on the topic in the near future. I will also be posting pictures for you to enjoy of my antique garden roses growing in my backyard.

My Antique Roses

First a little introduction on how I got into antique roses.

Several years ago I got the idea that I would start a plant nursery, much as my younger brother and I helped our father start his when we were in high school. After much discussion and thought with my older brother (whose land we would grow the plants on), it was decided we would start out growing what would grow best in Florida...palm trees!

After sourcing some seeds online and free from various donor palms around town we got started. However, waiting for these to germinate and grow could take some time. Since I frequented some of the gardening forums and was always surfing the internet I decided it was time to find some other plants that may produce a sell able product much faster.

Enter the world of antique garden roses. There was a lady kind enough to send me numerous cuttings of about 8 varieties. Not knowing much on rooting roses, I searched for info online and decided to create a makeshift greenhouse to root my cuttings in. Of the over three dozen, probably a handful rooted and survived. Either way I was happy since I successfully created some new plants! To be continued in my next post...