Up until almost 10 years ago, I rooted vast numbers of rose cuttings both here and in Denver easily using a few simple cheap methods. Then several years ago, some kind of a curse settled upon me, and neither those old "reliable methods" nor many others I tried in desperation worked. VERY exasperating to be a rosarian who can't root rose cuttings, especially of his own hybrids he worked so long and hard to breed. So today I set up two experiments in hopes of breaking that curse.
Last Friday I had a good daylong rain that gave me 2.5 inches, so today I turned a rich composty area in an east bed over with my shovel, levelled it, then gave it a bucket of rain water and let it drain and warm in the sun a while. Next I set on the soil a dumpster dived transluscent plastic storage tub beside the area so I could see its dimensions, then stuck into the soil cuttings of my hybrids 'Gold Blush', 'Gainesville Garnet' and 'Lemon Zen' (I let the cuttings dry in the shade for about 10 minutes so the cuts could heal a bit). Then I began inserting them into the loose rich damp soil, some with rooting hormone powder, some not, marking each hybrid's section with a piece of mini-blind, and using pieces of miniblind to separate each group from the next. Then I placed the storage tub over them, and lastly, covered it with a heavy slab of dumpster-dived mirror to hold the box down and prevent excess heat gain.
I will be sure to let you know if it works....cross your fingers! Tomorrow I will share the other rose rooting experiment I set up today.
John
john, I have a misting system if you ever want to use it. Also how did the tv work out did you get one ?
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A friend just gave me a 13 inch portable in trade for a rose to hold me over until I getb a bigger one. Thanks but I will pass on the mister system, want to use the simplest possible methods. John
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