FREE ROSES for Your Garden!

It is a well known fact that I am a greedy gardener.  Once I find a plant I love I just want more and more.  This is especially true when it comes to some of the more delicate coloured roses like this one,  Chandos Beauty.  Yes, she has a few holes in her but it is nearly October.

Earlier this summer, I was deadheading the roses and had a thought, since I was pruning off bits why not try to root some of the cuttings.  

Now, I am not going to tell you that my success rate was great.  Half of the cuttings died...but half LIVED!  Not only did they live, some are actually thriving!  The Chandos Beauty cutting already has a new flower bud.

If you have a special rose in your garden and you'd love to have more, why not try to root some cuttings.  It's pretty easy really,  here are the How To's taken from Gardeners' World.com:

You can take cuttings from any type of rose you choose, but just make sure you select long, strong, healthy stems from this season's growth, not old wood.

Make the cuttings 25cm long, cutting above a bud at the top to remove the shoot tip and below one at the base. Leave one leaf at the top and remove all the lower leaves.

Dip the base of the cutting into rooting hormone mixture. Insert several cuttings into a large pot of gritty compost.

Water well, place the pot in a shaded spot and leave until cuttings have rooted. Keep the compost moist. Pot up rose plants individually when well rooted, probably next summer.