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Cool. I must email T4R again and see if they managed to get one going for this year. The previous year's budding season was a disaster for them. Too much heat and not enough rain.
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Let me know if you need cuttings.
It's interesting that you say T4Roses had a terrible budding season last year and put it down to heat and dryness. Something similar happened here - an unprecedented failure with many of the roses budded in January. In this case, the nursery people were scratching heads and ended up assuming it must have had something to do with the unusual, and unusually heavy, rain at that time.
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Speaking of cuttings: what have you found is the best way to get the buggers going? Method, time of year, etc.
That 'Restless' that I rescued when it blew off its rootstock is still going, but I haven't had any luck striking other roses so I must be doing something wrong.
On a non-Tea note: I'm going to have to try 'Aotearoa' as cuttings, because I'm not having much joy with it on multiflora. The rootstock is suckering like crazy and is very rampant if I take my eyes off it for a while, while the scion is healthy enough but not keeping up.
Funnily enough, this is the only one that is doing this. Rootstocks under the rest of the roses are behaving just fine. Beats me why.
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Have a look at http://heritage.rose.org.au/rose-propagation
I do best with the doggybag (ziplock bag) method when I'm likely to get 6 weeks of warm weather.
In May in the southern states, in-ground is usually considered the best option (I don't like it because digging them up over a year later can be very hard work). If you're in the subtropics, you may get away with the doggybag method even this late in the year. A few modifications: the kittylitter formula has apparently changed, and I can't find a suitable replacement, so I'm using Perlite as an aerator instead. If you use ziplock bags with a double zip, they may be re-usable.
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Cheapo kitty litter these days is based on bentonite, which is a clay that absorbs heaps of water easily, but turns to the most horrible gluggy glue when it does. Not good for trying to root cuttings in.
Have you tried the wrapping method?
http://pushingtheroseenvelope.blogspot.com.au/search?q=cuttings
Quote from the post at the top of that page: "I had gone from 100% failure, to over 80% success with 135 cuttings. This was with a variety of different rose types, from polyanthas, climbers, species crosses, HTs and floribundas, not just a few varieties which root fairly easily."
It sounds promising, and I think I recall Patricia getting good results with this method.
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I stay with the doggybag (ziplock bag) method, because it works well for me: on the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" principle. The wrapping method does sound useful.
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#6 of 13 posted
27 APR 18 by
 HubertG
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I haven't had great luck with cuttings, but one technique that I found works is to wrap the end of the cutting with a ball of sphagnum moss, wrap it tightly with a rubber band, so that the end is definitely in contact with the moss, and plant it in the usual way. I think this works because the moss has antifungal and antibacterial properties, and prevents it from rotting.
I was reading on the Bermuda Rose Society website that spraying with dilute copper sulphate really improves their strike rate too.
That damp parcel technique does look interesting.
I never know whether to remove thorns that will go in the soil. What do you all do with thorns?
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Margaret has the runs on the board in successful cuttings department.
My success rate is much patchier. There seems to be quite a bit of alchemy involved.
The method I find easiest is one Patricia taught me.
You need clear plastic party cups, large zip lock bags and a cheap plastic crate with a lid and the potting medium of choice.
Make a few drainage holes in the bottom of the plastic cups..
Fill with potting medium of choice. In the west, Richgro cutting and seed raising mix is good but brickies sand is OK too.
Make sure medium is really well wetted and then well drained. No pockets of dry or water-repellant medium.
Write rose name on outside of cup with a permanent marker.
Select your cutting material. If you have a piece with four eyes, leave the leaves on the top two.
Push cuttings into cup of cutting mix. (One to a cup).
Put cup or cups into large zip-lock bags and seal and then put that into plastic crate. Put plastic crate into that magic spot that isn't too hot or too cold and forget about it for 6 weeks.
After 6 weeks, check. They are generally either black and furry, or have chosen life and you might even be able to see the little white roots against the inside of the clear plastic cup.
When they get to that stage you can open the bag and allow them to gradually acclimatise outside before potting up.
I like this method because you can see when they have grown roots and are ready to pot up into a nourishing potting medium and this can be done with minimal root disturbance.
Also like this advice from 1888 and often take cuttings of Teas, Chinas and Noisettes as suggested here - with that little heel on the end.
"With the exception of the Noisettes and Tea Roses, all grow well and readily from stout cuttings of 4 or 5 eyes, planted in May or June in an open border up to the top-most eye, and kept moist in dry weather. ... The wood of the Noisettes and Tea Roses is very pithy, and on that account it will not callus and root properly. The small spurs from these kinds, however, little twigs, which have borne blooms during the previous season, when taken off the plant with a heel, grow readily, when inserted in a sandy soil and kept damp.
In the first year, they make, of course, only small plants, but being vigorous growers, they soon rapidly increase in size, and the third season will make large specimens of them.
The principal condition in growing Roses from cuttings is to plant early in autumn, before the soil gets too cold."
From The Rosary and the Cultivation of the Rose by “Hortus” in The Western Mail [Perth], February 18, 1888 p11
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The cup method uses much less potting mix than the doggybag one. However, I did badly with the cup method because the little roots insist on crawling out through the drainage holes, and then potting up disturbs them too much. It doesn't seem to happen with the doggybags.
I usually leave thorns on, but they can be a nuisance in the doggybags.
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Righty-o. Thanks all. I suppose I should just get some bits and try a range of methods.
I can see copper sulphate being useful as an anti-fungal agent, but I think I'll skip that for now.
Billy's 1888 reference is interesting, because Teas and Noisettes is mainly what I want to try. Although I must say I am liking Chinas quite a lot up here, and another Souvenir de St. Anne's or two would be nice.
I would like to find a method that didn't rely on single-use plastic, as that sort of thing really is getting to be a bit of a worry these days. Little bits of plastic have been found everywhere, in large concentrations, from a mile deep in the Great Australian Bight, to frozen in Arctic sea ice.
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I wash and re-use my glasses/cups.
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Indeed. I'm trying washing-out and re-using the recent batch of doggybgs, which have a double zip. I suppose I could try May cuttings in pots almost buried in the garden, to make it easier to remove them later, but that's very restricting re time of starting cuttings. Old-rose rescuers know that you take the cuttings when you see the rose, because there's a substantial chance it will be gone when you go back.
I've wondered if the "heel" improves the strike rate because it gives a larger area of exposed cambium to produce roots. Probably re-inventing the wheel here - horticulturalists doubtless know why it works.
Teas, Noisettes, Chinas, Polyanthas and ramblers mostly strike root readily in doggybags (not Chromatella, as someone complained in 1881, see references). HTs are variable, especially the yellows.
Leonie K says Noisettes do poorly on their own roots in Brisbane. Interesting.
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It's May now. I'm up for any method that works in May.
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#13 of 13 posted
25 JUN 18 by
HubertG
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I decided to give that wrapping method for cuttings a go, so just giving a report here. I initially took only 4 cuttings of my Dr Grill (not knowing how this would work). I took ~15cm cuttings of wood that had flowered but had not yet reshooted. I dipped them in a solution of copper sulphate. I tore off the leaf stalks and thorns and painted these areas with rooting gel and let the bases of the cuttings sit for about 10 minutes in rooting hormone liquid mixed with some water. While they were soaking I wet about 5 layers of newspaper in the sink and let it drain well so it wasn't dripping. Then I simply lay the cuttings on the damp paper and folded it up, sealed it in a large snap-lock bag and put it in a drawer for two weeks. The ideal temperature range given on that website converts to about 10-20°C, which is just right for here in Sydney in June.
Opening them up today I found that callouses and the beginnings of rootlets had formed most quickly where I had torn the leaves off. I'm inclined to leave them in the packets for a few more days and pot them up in larger snap-lock bags (Margaret's method) and hope it's not too cold for them to take off.
I'm quite pleased initially with this novel approach because traditionally I haven't had good luck with cuttings and it is rather easy too.
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