My second rose cuttings taken from Mary Rose plant seem to be doing fine – look at the photo, do you think they will survive?
I think there is a big chance.
In one of my last posts I was writing about my problematic Mary Rose producing lots of suckers, which sometimes pop up 2 meters away from the original plant! Then I have to rip off 2 meters of already established soil, which is something I shouldn’t do and also you shouldn’t do as well. Turning the soil means bringing new weed seeds from the deeper soil levels to the top. The less you turn the soil, the better for you – less weeding, less work.
Suckers are weakening the original plant, especially these style of suckers, which can be spotted after the plant took the effort of growing 2 meters of them. I can see clearly on my roses, how weak they are – they seem to be half dead, blooming, right, but only few flowers in a season.
Mary Rose is the only rose I have with this kind of problem – others are fine.
So, I decided to give a try and propagate my Mary Rose from cutting, to see the difference because I believe she can bloom much more profuse.
I took first rose cuttings 5 weeks ago. From all info I’ve read, it says take the stem, which just finished blooming. Deadhead and divide in few 12-15 cm pieces, leaving 1 pair of leaves on the top of each cutting. The bottom part of each cutting should be cut at about 45 degree angle, leaving long nice cut. To this instruction I’ve added one my own invention – I shortened the rose leaves to only last 1 pair. Then I used hormone and sticked the cuttings in the pot, keeping the soil damp. I have not covered them what so ever and the pot was standing on the northern windowsill.
Very soon – 7-10 days - I’ve noticed stems were getting brown and died in 14 days.
I decided to not give up so easy and try again.
After removing dead rose cuttings from the pot, I sticked fresh ones. I only made one change – I didn’t touch the left 1 leaf.
Very soon – in about one week – I noticed there is no browning, but rather positive change on the stems – buds started to grow!
This time none of the cuttings died, all are green. Only the leaves started to wilt and fall, but this seems to not disturb the process. Now, as you can see on the photo – only one leaf is left.
Notice please that stems are not sticked in the soil up to the neck (LOL), only half.
So far so good.
Cross your fingers for Mary Rose! And for me! (eeeeh, why not?!), please....
What is your experience with rose softwood propagation?
