Cuttings from established roses

[Onesmallstepforaman]

I have quite a few roses in the garden, mostly bush/shrub which I don't know the variety of. I'd like to take cuttings to pass some to my daughter. Has anyone done this successfully, and could give some tips please?

My mother used to do this routinely - she reckoned they grew better on their own roots *this was back in the 60s).

My main tip would be to take lots of cuttings to make up for deficiencies in technique.

I have tried a few times.
They’ve never rooted.

Gooseberries are the only thing I’ve successfully grown from cuttings, everything else has died.

If I can’t propagate it by division I just buy a new plant personally.

I don’t know how people do cuttings successfully. I’ve done so many, following that woman who was on monty don saying how and also using rooting powder

The only thing that worked was honeysuckle. If you work out how to do it.,let us know..

I'm not a person who is into detail, following instructions, or doing a perfect job, but in the absence of other answers, this is what I do:

Om the second half of the year, take cutting from the ends of branches. Cut just above a leaf axil (where the leaves hoin the stem) in order for the parent plant to re-shoot without leaving too much of a dead stem. Trim the cutting to just below a leaf axil - this is where the roots will come from. Remove all leaves except for one or two at the top - it the leaf at the top is big, chop it in half. You want about a postage-stamp area of leaf.

Insert the cutting about 2/3 deep into a pot of compost - preferably well drained (mix some sand in with it). Make sure the compost is good and moist. Put the entire pot and cutting into a plastic bag and tie the top, so the whole system is sealed. Next day, check the compost is still moist and re-seal. Then forget about it for several months.

I stopped using rooting hormone when I discovered it has a shelf life of only a year, I don't use enough to justify buying it fresh each year. Not using it hasn't made any difference to my success rate.

You can put several cuttings into the same pot. It's good now and again to remove any cutting that has obviously rotted. Don't even think of disturbing the cuttings until there are some good roots coming out of the base of the pot.

Take lots of cuttings. I probably get 30 - 50% success. If you want to practice, fuchsias and pelargoniums are easy, bay trees and rosemary are recent successes, I've done roses this way (my most recent rose cutting is now 15 feet into the trees). I've completely and consistently failed on wayfaring tree.

@Bluntness100
I too did cuttings after watching Carol on Gardeners' world. I think I tried something like 20 pots of different things.
The only thing that has been successful is Nepeta - it has grown and grown and is even flowering in the pots.
So I assume that one is fail proof, easy peasy. The others don't look dead yet, but they haven't done much and don't look particularly healthy either.
I think it was 3 or 4 weeks ago now?

Great advice, as always @MereDintofPandiculation Thank you

I take shrub cuttings as MereDintofPandiculation describes.
I do use rooting powder but is probably 10 years old so probably worthless!
I mix a bit of ordinary soil and some fine gravel and some compost to put in the pots as the cuttings don't want lots of nourishment to grow big branches, they want stuff to get their roots into.
I put plastic bags over them. But my biggest help is a shady bit of ground against the north end of the garage. The pots sit on bare soil away from direct sunlight against the garage wall which keeps them from frost. By early spring the ones with new leaves will get brought out into more light ready to grow on before planting.

Ironically roses are the only things I find it easy to do cuttings from - just make sure it is older stems, take everything off them, make sure you dont mix up your up and your down iyswim then put them round the edges of gritty compost in terracotta and water well and leave for months.

I have roses growing in my hedge. When I cut the hedge last time, I literally chopped a bit about the size of a chopstick, dunked the end in rotting hormone and stuck it in a pot of compost (five to a pot). I did this with ten bits last time and only 2 failed. Perhaps beginners luck.

Always, yes, about three or four weeks ago, we followed it to the letter, I must have done thirty or forty and they all died bar one..😱

I've actually successfully grown roses from cutting this year.
I took them a few months ago so that may be part of the secret, sap rising and all that. I looked it up on youtube and followed their technique. It was one of those "d'oh. that's so obvious, why didn't I think of it" moments. Instructions were pretty much as pp have said except that they had an extra step. When the cutting is all ready, pare off the bark for the bottom inch or so - it makes the action of the very old but still worked hormone rooting powder more immediate on the internal gubbins.

Thanks all, I'll try plenty and let you know how I get on

I do my shrub cuttings late summer so they sit through the winter.

Has anyone ever done the Rose cutting in an old potato thing? I’ve always wondered if it actually works!

I think it was 3 or 4 weeks ago now? Don't be so impatient!

Yes it does take months to see any signs of life and in that time you need to make sure they dont dry out etc.

Oh, okay then ...

I clearly misheard Carol so, because I thought she had said something like 'In a couple of weeks, you'll even be taking cuttings from your cuttings'

But anyway, the nepeta are actually already thriving

I think Carol's comment (which I admit I don't remember perfectly) was about taking soft cuttings from things like dahlias.

I have got one successful rose cutting, but it's taken well over a year to produce strong signs of life and very nearly ended up in the green waste bag.

I'm going to have to try 5this now. Can I take cuttings now?

Depends what of - soft cuttings like dahlias can be taken now but roses etc should be left until the autumn. Look at the RHS advice on propagation, including hardwood and softwood cuttings.

Just a quick update. I've taken semi-hardwood cuttings from some of the roses. Broke off all but one leaf ,all the thorns and scraped back the bark 2/3 of the way round the base of the stem. Then pushed the cutting into multipurpose compost in a 4-5" pot. I then cut the base off a pop bottle that would fit in the top of the pot, took the lid off and pushed the cut end of the bottle into the compost. I now have new growth coming from the base I.e. growing from a node. The pots are stood on the greenhouse floor and are.watered.occasionally. I seem to have some success, which is lovely.Thanks for your inputs