Make More Roses - Cold Frame Propagation

Propagating Roses in a Cold Frame... Here is how we root most of our cuttings and get about 50 - 80 percent success depending on the variety. You should be able to set up a cold frame system for less than $30.00. We use this with success year 'round for all types of roses.

Step 1: BUILD A COLD FRAME: Take cinder blocks and lay them out in a rectangle in a portion of the yard that receives shade with open sky. Do not put a cold frame designed to root roses in heavy shade or open sun. Fill the rectangle you have built with half peat moss and half sand. Assuming you build a cold frame that is four blocks long by three blocks wide, it should run about $16.00 for the cinder blocks and about $6.00 for the sand and peat.

Step 2: GET YOUR SUPPLIES READY: Along with fresh cuttings, you'll need water in a disposable cup and a supply of rooting hormone. For best results, look for a rooting compound that contains .8% Indole Butryic Acid (IBA). You can find this under the brand names of Rhizopon #3 and Hormonex #3. It will run you about $25 for a pound and will last for several thousand cuttings. We don't recommend the rooting hormones found in your local garden center. While they work great on perennials, We have found they are not strong enough for the more stubborn roses.

Step 3: FIND AGED FLOWERS: Find a stem where the bloom has dropped its petals within the past two weeks. Taking cuttings before petal-fall results in cuttings with immature wood which will rot instead of rooting. Cuttings from once blooming roses may be taken any time after petal-fall as long as it is from the current year's growth.

Step 4. TAKE A CUTTING: Take a cutting that has about five leaves.

Step 5. STRIP LEAVES AND FLOWERS: Cut off any spent flowers. Strip the cutting of all but its upper two or three leaves.

Step 6. SHORTEN THE CUTTING: Shorten the cutting by cutting just enough off the bottom so that the bottom-most leaf bud is about a half-inch from the bottom end of the cutting.

Step 7. MAKE TWO GASHES IN THE BASE OF THE CUTTING: Take your fingernail or sharp knife and make a one-inch scrape from the bottom of the cutting up through the leaf bud. Make a similar scrape on the opposite side of the cutting - there won't be a leaf bud on that side. Scraping through a leaf bud disturbs rapidly growing cells that are more likely to turn into roots.

Step 8. DIP THE CUTTING INTO WATER: The rooting hormone powder is more likely to adhere to the cutting if the cutting is wet. That's where your disposable cup of water comes in handy.

Step 9. DIP THE CUTTING INTO THE ROOTING HORMONE: Dip your cutting into the rooting hormone powder. Be sure to dip the cutting in deep enough to completely cover both of the gashes you made in the base of the cutting.

Step 10. WAIT A MINUTE BEFORE PLACING THE CUTTING IN THE COLD FRAME: The process of pushing the cutting into the sand and peat mixture wipes off a lot of the hormone powder. By waiting a minute, you give the hormone a chance to permeate the plant tissues.

Step 11. PLACE CUTTING IN THE COLD FRAME: Push the cutting down into the peat/sand mixture about two-three inches depending upon the length of the cutting. You don't want to push it down any father than the bottom-most leaf remaining on the stem.

Step 12a. LABEL YOUR CUTTINGS - THE WINDOW BLIND METHOD: For inexpensive plant labels, go to your local home improvement store and purchase the least expensive set of window blinds they have. You should be able to find a 36" set for under four dollars. Cut strings to seperate the individual plastic slats. Cut the slats into thirds. You should now have about 150 plant markers that are designed to hold up to direct sunlight. Use pencil to write the names of the varieties - permanent marking pens can fade in the high humidity of a cold frame.

Step 12b. LABEL YOUR CUTTING - ELECTRIC LABEL MAKER METHOD: OK, lets say you have the handwriting of a doctor. Using one of the new electric label makers prints neat lables for all your cuttings that you can wrap around the top of each stem. There are several different models on the market. Look for one that produces labels with clear plastic tape over the printing. The clear plastic is a UV shield that keeps the label from fading. Labels without the UV shield can fade away in less than a year.

Step 13. COVER THE CUTTING AND KEEP IT WATERED: Take an empty two littler pop-bottle and cut off the bottom. Leaving the lid in place, push the bottle over the cutting to crate a mini-greenhouse. You can cover a couple of cuttings at a time if they have been placed close together. You may need to water your cuttings every other day if the rains don't oblige. If the temperatures get over 85 during the day, water every morning and evening to keep the temperatures down through evaporation.

Step 14. COVER WITH A WINDOW SCREEN: .If you have an old window screen, place it on top of your bottles and put a rock on the screen. This will keep the bottles from blowing off during a summer storm but will still let the rain through to keep the cold frame moist. It will, most importantly, keep the sun from cooking your cuttings. If the leaves drop off your cuttings, remove the fallen leaves at once or they will mold and the mold will spread to kill your cuttings. Leafless cuttings will still root in many cases. If the base of the cutting turns brown - remove it.

Step 15. PATIENCE: This is the hard part. It takes three to twelve weeks to get cuttings to root. Once you see side shoots and leaves developing on your cutting, you can remove the bottle and tug gently. If the cutting resists, chances are you have roots. If it pulls out, obviously it needs to be put back in and given some more time. Once you determine that it has roots, keep the bottle off for a couple of weeks to acclimate it before transplanting it into your garden.

Step 16. TOTAL ADDICTION: Once you get the hang of it you'll want lots of cold frames. You can see here we have six cold frames going at once. For some reason we have frame number four full of monkey-grass - it was free and needed a quick home.