I wanted to share some photos of my front garden. The first few pics are of florist roses that I had planted in spring of 2013. The next pics show how they've grown in 1 year.

And the after just taken a few minutes ago

So glad you all liked them. They are own root and I grew them from bouquets of roses from Costco that I took cuttings from.

Maude

The cuttings were actually pretty simple. I would buy a bouquet of roses from costco- 2 dozen for about 17 dollars. I would take about seven or eight roses and clip the flowers off so that I would have a stem with two sets of leaves.

Then, make vertical slits in the bottom of the stem with a sharp razor (making sure to penetrate completely through the stem) and then dipping it into rooting hormone powder.

I would then take potting soil that had been watered with water and superthrive, poke holes into the soil and gently place the stems in so that the rooting hormone would not rub off. This would go into a clear plastic bag sealed with a rubber band and on a window with not too much sun..

I could usually tell if they were going to survive after about a week by looking at the leaves. If they started to turn yellow, then it was usually a goner..

My success rate with this is usually about 40 percent which is why it's important to do as many cuttings as you can. I don't think that florist roses are more difficult to root than any other, I believe it has to do with the freshness of the flower. When you purchase roses in the US they are usually shipped here from south america so they are not exactly fresh by the time you get them home. It's a good idea when you buy them to make sure that the leaves look good because that is a very good indicator.

One of the things I like about doing it from florist roses is the amount of time they last on the bush and in a vase. Even though they have no scent, they are still gorgeous to look at:)

Maude

P.S. I'm not sure if using superthrive makes any difference whatsoever, but since I have it, I use it.

You know, I never actually knew the names of any of my roses. When I purchased the bouquets at costco, they don't say anything and neither does their website. So, I usually just refer to these roses as my "South Americans" because that is where they came from..

My absolute favorite has always been one that has a beautiful color that is kind of hard to classify. The best way I can describe it is like the inside of a watermelon. Everything about it is perfect, color, shape, length of time it lasts in a vase.

When you take cuttings of florist roses, it's pretty much a crap shoot if they will survive or not. However, I did find that when they did survive and I decided to do more cuttings of them from the original plant from the previous year, I had great success.

As I said before, I really think the freshness of the rose makes all the difference. So, when they come right out of my garden, they usually do very well.