Rose cutting- when do I remove cover?

[Forgoodnesssakejustletme]

I've taken some cuttings from a vip 😊rose bush and I am pretty sure they have taken - the leaves are still green I have a plastic bag over the pot - do I leave that on all winter now? I really need this to work as I won't get another chance.

Roses should drop their leaves in winter when they are dormant. I would remove the bag, carefully turn the rose out of the pot to check it has roots and return to the pot. Place in a sheltered spot outside or even heel it into the ground for the winter , then plant in its intended position in early spring.

I usually wait until I see roots coming out of the bottom. Months, not weeks.

@Jellybean23 so you would remove the plastic bag covering it?
@MereDintofPandiculation would you leave the plastic bag on whilst waiting for the roots to come down? Or take it off now?

I would remove the plastic bag as I would be worried about the cutting rotting in a damp atmosphere. Put the pot in a really sheltered place outside and leave it without disturbing it until the spring. I have a rose cutting that has grown leaves but I am not touching it until next year. Its parent ( a very old rose that I have had for years) is in a large pot and I stuck the cutting into the soil beside it when I was doing some vigorous dead heading, and it seems to have taken.

I leave the plastic bag on, but I make sure it is large enough that it's not pressing against the leaves, it's more like a mini-greenhouse. I check every now and again and remove anything that's rotted, but since I have removed almost all the leaves from the cutting, there's not a lot to rot, and it tends to be the cuttings that haven't rooted that rot. I'm more likely to kill cuttings by failing to water them, that's why I keep them inside a plastic bag until they're well rooted. I then open the top of the bag and get them used to that for a week or so before taking them out of the bag altogether.

My mother used to just stick them in the ground outside and leave them to root or not by themselves.

You can't be confident anything's rooted until it starts growing new shoots on top, and even then it sometimes manages to grow new shoots using the energy stored in the stick.

“It sometimes manages to grow new shoots using energy stored in the stick”

Nooooooooo! Please don’t let this be true of my cutting.

@MereDintofPandiculation @viques so you mean they can sometimes shoot from the stick rather than growing roots???
I have also stuck one in a pot containing an oak tree because I didn't want to waste it throwing it away and that is still green so maybe that will take too. I think they are looking pretty good. The stick is to stop the bag falling down onto the leaves. I think I will keep the bag on until the spring then. I wanted a cloche to put over but haven't found one of the size I need (or can only buy six or so at a time which I don't need). Keep your fingers crossed for me. 😊

Yes, they're looking pretty good.

Once you've got the rose cutting growing away and ready to be repotted, your oak tree could also do with some fresh soil - that pattern of yellowish leaves darker green along the vains is an indication it's not getting quite as much food as it'd like. No need to worry till next year, it doesn't need any food over the winter.

For future reference, it's good to remove some of the leaves of a cutting. I would probably leave 1-2 old postage stamps in area. That will cut down the amount of water it needs, which is a good idea when you've got no roots. But yours are doing really nicely, so don't go messing with them now.

I'm not the world's best taker of cuttings, so I always take at least half a dozen.

Leaves me with lots of unwanted plants! I've been palming off bay trees on people for the last couple of years.

@MereDintofPandiculation I did remove lower leaves but left some on so I could see if they were dying off (and I kind of imagined they needed a bit of leaf for chlorophyll- I don't even know what I'm trying to say here 😀). I haven't done cuttings of anything for years so haven't got much in the way of pots etc so pleased these seem to be ok. I'd dearly love to plant the oak tree somewhere - I grew it with my son when he was about 5 starting it in a bottle so he could see it rooting. He's now nearly 24. 😊

Yes, they do need some leaf left for photosynthesis. I maybe remove too uch.

Anyone doing any rewilding near you? Or is your LA pushing tree planting? They’d be happy to give it a home.

@MereDintofPandiculation that's an idea -I'll google it. I have a friend with a smallholding and he has offered but he gets deer which eat everything so I don't want to risk it