Misc. Rose Information and Links *This information I collected for my personal use,   Please go to the links of the authors to view other information of great use. Germinating Rose Seeds New Roses from Cuttting(When)  (TOP)       Germinating Rose Seeds       The information below was taken from  Malcolm Manners Page  Thanks Malcom Most of the roses we buy at nurseries or exchange with each other have been vegetatively propagated, either by budding/grafting onto a rootstock, or by rooting cuttings (own-root). Yet each of those varieties, at some point in the past, sprouted from a seed, or was a sport of a variety grown from seed. Roses are not difficult to grow from seed, if you do it right. If you just put a lot of seeds in a pot of soil, water it, and wait, you'll likely be disappointed. But by using the procedure explained here, you should be able to grow them. First, be aware that each rose seedling is a new, never-before-seen variety. If you plant seeds of 'Don Juan', you will get climbers, large bushes, small bushes, in a variety of colors, with a variety of scents, etc. What you can be completely sure of, though, is that you will not grow another plant of 'Don Juan'. That's true of any variety from which you collect the seed; they don't "come true" to the original type. The probability of your coming up with the next AARS winner is not very good. Kind of like winning at Lotto. However, among the many poor quality seedlings, you will likely produce some plants that you find interesting, and which may be well worth growing. You can make your own hybrids, selecting both parents, carefully transferring pollen, etc. I'll not go into that process in this article. An easier way, which can also produce interesting results, is just to let the bees in your garden take care of the pollination. In this case, you'll get what are called "open-pollinated" seed, and you'll know with certainty the identity only of the female parent, from which you'll collect the seeds. Rose seeds are produced inside the "hips," the fruit of the rose. If you zealously dead-head your roses, you'll not get any hips, since they are produced from the old flowers. Some varieties seldom, if ever, produce hips; others are good producers. In our gardens, 'Don Juan', 'Carefree Beauty', 'Bailey Red', 'Bermuda's Kathleen', 'Dortmund', 'Kathleen', 'Penelope', 'Ballerina', 'Apricot Nectar', and the single musk rose (R. moschata) are particularly good producers. In the late summer or fall, collect hips that have ripened -- they'll usually be yellow, orange, or red. Cut them open with a knife, and shell out the creamy white "seeds." These are technically "achenes," each of which has the true seed inside, but for practical purposes of growing them, we can think of them as seeds. Most roses come from colder climates than Florida, and their seeds are programmed to survive a winter before they sprout. We can trick them into sprouting by giving them a "stratification" treatment -- a period of moist, cold storage. Rinse the seeds if they have a lot of fruit pulp on them, and wrap them in a moist paper towel. Place that packet into a zip-loc bag, and place it in the refrigerator (not the freezer). Be sure to include a label, indicating the parent variety and the date. Don't feed it to the dog or the spouse, as left-overs... After 4 or 5 weeks, start checking on the seeds every week or two. At some point, you'll notice little root tips poking out of some of the seeds. Carefully transfer these to pots of soil, cover them with about 1/4 inch of soil, water them in, and keep them at room temperature. They should emerge in a few days. Be careful in transferring them since they are quite fragile, and they tend to stick to the paper towel. It's very easy to break the root off of the seed. I use a blunt pair of tweezers for this process. Put the unsprouted seeds back in the refrigerator for another week or two, and check them again. Depending on the variety, seeds may continue to sprout for several months. So you'll likely make several transfers to warm soil, over that period. Very young rose seedlings are quite susceptible to damping-off, a disease in which the stem rots at the soil surface. Avoid it by using a sterile planting soil to start with, not overwatering, and if you like, use a copper-based fungicide right after the plants come up. Another common problem with rose seedlings is that a high percentage of them will be highly susceptible to powdery mildew. It's probably best to discard those plants, since they'll not likely become resistant later in life. Keep the robust, healthy seedlings instead. If the seeds' parents were both repeat-flowering varieties, the seedlings can flower in as little as 5 or 6 weeks after planting. They'll almost certainly flower in the first season. If either parent was once-flowering, however, the seedlings may not flower in the first year, and some may wait 3 years or even more to flower for the first time.  (TOP) New Roses from Cuttting (When) Dear Lynnette, I have taken cutting of my roses and they have grown roots(I used rooting hormone and it worked.) My question is now that it is winter in Ok, I wonder if I can go get cutting and bring indoors and use the hormone and start young plants now.  Will they grow or do I have to wait until spring. I also cross bred a rose and put the hip in ref. it has been in there for a month, when whould it be a good time to take the seeds out and plant, how do I go about it. Thanks, Charlotte from OK Lynnette ( The Oldrosarian) Answers - This information is from Lynette Making new roses from cuttings is always interesting when they take and start to grow. You can take cuttings now just bear in mind that they need light to activate them into growth. At this time of year the light is poor and so you will need 14 hours of flourscent light to activate them into growth. Place the cuttings so that the tops are about 4 inches from the lights, you can use individual plastic bags over them for moisture or simply drape any type of plastic (black is okay) as they have light, over the light stand. Sometimes it is easy with the large piece of plastic as you may have to spray the cuttings with Damp Off if mould shows up.  There are two types of cuttings, one is semi ripe, taken right after the flower has died on the canes, and hardwood, taken when the plant is dormant in the fall. Semi ripe start quicker (and show leaves) than the hard wood ones, which make roots first and then show leaves. So you may have to wait a bit longer for the cuttings you take now to root. Here is an excellent article about rose seeds that tells you all you want to know. http://members.aol.com/mmmavocad3/RoseSeeds.html  Hope this helps. Lynnette Credits Would love to give credit for the graphic (rose fairy) on entry page but I don't know where it came from. Germinating Rose Seeds from  Malcolm Manners Page  Thanks Malcom New Roses From Cutting Thanks Lynette - Lynette  (TOP)