Nothing says summer to me more than the smell of a beautiful rose.
And now we are
in the middle of August, it's very windy, we've got grey skies and it's starting to rain.
But even so I am going to take some rose cuttings today to increase my
stock of roses. This one is coming into the house with me.
I know that taking
cuttings from roses works very well when they're done in a container. And the best
way to do that is to use fairly straight growth from this year, so this year's new
growth at this time of year, late summer, it is ideal. So I'm going to take off a piece.
I've taken it off just below a leaf and, when I can unravel it, I'm
going to use a piece about 10 inches long and I'm gonna take it off just above the
leaf as well. Now the only leaves that I need to keep on this are the top ones, so
the rest you can very gently pull off. You don't want to tear it so it takes a
load of bark. If you can, you just want to take that gently away.
Now I know on these very thorny roses that some people actually remove the
thorns/ So you can do that by placing a thumb on the side of it and pushing
gently. I don't know that this makes slightest bit of difference other than
you don't get spiked as you're pushing it into the soil. I'm going to do one
where I've removed them and the rest I'm not going to worry about. So it's up
to you, you can make that decision or you could try both too.
And then the next
step is to get rose into the container. If you want to how you can use a rooting powder.
I haven't used them for roses before and I've had plenty of success
with roses and you literally just dip dip the end in doesn't need a huge
amount on it don't forget to put the lid back on so it doesn't fall over or blow
away so who've got a little bit of roots and pads out and I'm just going to push
that in very gently into my pot this is quite a long part and it was quite a
long cutting which hopefully means that an awful lot of that stem is in contact
with the compost which will give it plenty of chance for rooting down the
stem and at the bottom of it too I'm going to carry on looking for
suitable pieces to take cuttings from there's one
so her cut just below the leaf cut just above this one's going to be a bit
shorter because I think I like it there I'll remove the leaves this one I'm not
going to take there this the thorns off it I'm quite happy with it like that
into the roots and powder now I will leave a link in the information below to
the rooting powder and also to the roses that I have here so the one earlier on
was good to radhika that's from David Austin roses and this beauty it's called
new dawn I'm putting them in round the edge of the pot rather than just stuffed
into the middle of it because the edges of the pot will actually stay warmer
than the center I don't understand how that works I don't get the physics at
that but I thought it's what I've been told
on many occasions and I've actually popped in the tops that I've cut off as
well because I can't find any more material to take cuttings from so I'm
just going to experiment with this to me that has to be worth just experimenting
with so I'm not going to give this a water and then pop it in a sheltered
site I'm going to put it just outside the pot eternal out of the very bitter
winds that we have and then we'll have a look again at in a few months time so
I'm just starting to pot up the rose cuttings that I took in May in fact my
little label says the 31st of May here we are middle of August so that's 10 in
Evin weeks something like that and when I took them out of this pot I
have actually snapped the top of them which is a bit of a disaster but I do
want to show you a that I make mistakes no but beyond to show you how how well
they've grown so there were three cuttings in here that
hook this one even produced a little flower which is what I snapped off but
usefully that has told me exactly which rose it was that it's it's from and I'm
leaving that in there just to remind me for now but in here I'm gonna handle
them very carefully so I don't break them any more than I already did we can
see that there are indeed roots coming through from these cuttings and I'm
really pleased I am really pleased of how these are doing so this one if
you'll excuse it's damaged top I'm hoping that that hasn't because it
hasn't snapped off completely and I'm hoping that that will survive
but it has got some nice roots so I'm going to pop them individually into pots
and grow them on
so I'm resting the plant so that the soil comes - back to the level of this
rim I don't want it filled all the way up to
the top because otherwise there's no room for for watering it and the water
will just wash the compost out of the top
and I'm pushing it then gently I don't want to pack it in because that will
make it really hard for the roots to work their way into the new compost but
I don't want air pockets in it either so I'm just doing that quite gently and
also trying to keep the compost might put a bit too much in there we go keep
the composter around the same level as it was before well I don't know how
essential it is that you don't bury it deeper certainly I plant my roses one
apartment I go up in the garden my partner pipe deeply but for this little
one well it's still developing its root system and growing right now from these
few fragile roots I'm going to need the compost at the same level here I have
got some cuttings of a white climbing rose these are given to me by my friend
Jane so she took these cuttings using exactly the same method I've just shown
you but I want to show you that you know they don't always work there's one here
that is
a brown twig that hasn't taken but this I'm not sure whether this is one or more
plants I'm just tipping out of the tops and you
can see here it's dry but I need to water it but I've got a really good root
system here and I suspect that this is three separate cuttings three separate
plants so her bit like I was showing you about dividing plants previously I'm
just going to very gently pry Zee's apart and try and take as much of the
roots as I can with it there we go so I've got one plant there I'm gonna
pop these up separately and then let's have a look to see whether these are two
separate plants or actually the same plant
I think that could be all the same plants so I'm gonna put it up as though
it is and then if it's to well they're in together so that will go back into
one pot and the other one will go into a different pot they're also going to get
a really good water
because I really like roses I take a lot of cuttings and some of them are
successful a lot of them aren't but I thought you might like to see two
examples of a complete success the Rose over in this corner are the
cuttings that I took while I was making a video in January 2018 and that has
flowered beautifully this one which is a climbing rose I've got to go up over an
arch here I took this cutting four years ago almost four years to the week and
this is done beautifully I've actually moved it a couple of times until I found
the right spot for it and it's now scrambling up over the arch and along
the fence here it's getting more and more blustery out here so I'm taking
this lovely Gertrude eco flower inside it's time for a cup of tea