Albas we've never managed to get the hang off. Gallicas and Damasks we've done OK with, though there hasn't been a reason to root them in years. Why do you want to root them?

It may be they root better with cooler conditions. We've always done ours in the basement.

I'd like to share some of them with others as well as use them throughout the landscaping. Since the majority of my gallicas are grafted, they've not been inclined to send suckers yet. I did plant the graft union deeply to encourage them to go ownroot, so I would imagine suckering is in the future.

Robert

Robert,
The Albas are particularly difficult creatures. Some varieties I have never managed to root cuttings of, after a decade of trying. ('Konigin von Danemark' comes to mind) A friend once told me that you can root Alba cuttings more easily if you allow the plant to experience a frost before taking wood, but this implies taking hardwood (Winter) cuttings only. The Gallicas and Damasks are quite a bit easier if you time things right.

I found the easiest wood to root was one of two: flowering shoots as close to pencil thickness as possible, taken from the plant no more than 2 or 3 weeks after blooms have finished. It is important to take some of the heel on that cutting. In other words, using good secateurs, cut the shoot off the parent branch as close as you possibly can, keeping every millimeter of that shoot and retaining that thicker wood at its base. Its the wood at this branching point that will form callous most easily.

The second choice (and with some varieties this worked better for me) I take the mid-Summer basal shoots once they have pretty much stopped growing at the tips and have started to harden (about mid-July in my climate) and I cut these up into 6" pieces, making the cut at the base about 1/4" below a bud eye. On the side opposite the bud eye, scrape the bark lightly to expose the cambium layer, a scrape 1/2 to 3/4" long. The sections that will root most easily will be the ones in the middle of the cane, for most varieties. I had the best success with either kind of cutting wood by placing these in Ziploc bags in soil that was damp but not sopping wet and placing these in a shady location. Some dappled morning or later afternoon light is OK, but no direct light at mid-day should be permitted. Left undisturbed, these should be ready to pot up in 3 to 5 weeks.

Paul

Hi, I was wondering if the roses that are hard to root with cuttings will be hard to get on their own roots by planting deep. I have done it with a few roses but it hasn't been long enough to tell if it worked.

Thanks, Paul. I will definitely try these two techniques. I had read someone's post that dormant cuttings had about a 90% success rate. So, I did take my clippings from pruning and am trying to root them as well. It's still too soon to tell.

Robert

At least hardwood cuttings are very easy. We've tried that with albas and still haven't gotten anywhere. OTOH, if I ever figure out where to put my hedge of Jacques Cartier, I know how to get the roses.

I'm still trying to figure out why you want square miles of roses.

I have yet to root Jacques Cartier...weird.

That is weird ... I get awesome results with Jacques Cartier/Marchesa Bochella. I tell people that you can probably get roots from this one by spitting on it.

Paul, thank you, thank you for your advice and observations. (Many of us rose gardeners are really mad scientists at heart.) I will put your methods to the test come late spring and summer. I'll be taking cuttings like a mad woman by that time, and it's nice to know that I may have some chance of success with these roses.

Connie

I actually ordered my first batch of roses from a nursery because they had a large assortment of albas. However, the konigens never were sent because they didn't get big enough, 2 alba maximas turned out to be american beauty,cl., and 2 felicite's turned into gallicas, and i think i have 2 felicite's instead of great maiden's blush,lol. The only albas that seem to be exceptionally vigorous seem to be the pompom blanc parfaits, and mme. plantier's, and belle amour's, which i think probably have a lot of china,noisette and/or aryshire in those. High country roses says on their website that albas are difficult to propagate. It sounds like whoever figures out and solves that mystery stands to increase their bank account immensely,lol. It's probably why vintage never seems to have a large assortment of albas, believe me i checked often. I have the few they do have, that i didn't on order for spring,lol, but again if they are easier to root i wonder how much 'alba' they really are, aenechen von thoreau is probably more aryshire.
I've never rooted a cutting,lol, but have you tried the clonex gel? Supposedly it stays on better than the powder or liquid. I'm sure there are other issues as to why they are slow to root though. Perhaps they would be a good candidate for tissue culture. I wonder if they just deplete their food reserves and dehydrate before they get a chance to root?

I have been rooting without any rooting hormone at all. Perhaps I should try some.

Robert

I'm not convinced rooting hormone is all that necessary for roses. In fact, one of the reasons I've heard given for the difficulty in rooting Albas is that they object to the alcohol in certain rooting compounds.

Gallicas, and the damasks I've tried, are just slow. So trying them at lower temperatures makes sense. Decay will set in slower, giving the rose more opportunity to root.

Here i am talking like an expert, which i'm not by the way, but i doubt if you need any hormone on many or most roses, but some i'm sure you do. The hormone is usually an auxin which is usually located in the uppermost part of the meristem and has to travel down to where the wound,or cut is made to form callous, which are free cells that can become either roots,shoots,etc. but i think the auxin can only work for a certain amount of time before it actually starts inhibiting root growth. There are also different auxins, i believe iaa or whatever is the most common, but some plants need the other chemical auxin to root better. from my understanding trees are very difficult to root probably because of the cambium or woodier stem. It makes you wonder if albas and other european type roses are slower because they have a woodier stem than say the china-type roses including mf. Perhaps the auxin is slower to circulate in woodier canes, maybe that is why pencil-size and no larger cuttings are used. Maybe thinner canes would work better with the ogrs, i have no idea, never tried. I guess if someone knew why then the problems might be easier to overcome.And i guess it would make sense that hardwood cuttings in the fall would make a little more sense, if all the starches and nutrients were sent down toward the roots and growth came to a standstill in the winter. Might give them a better chance of survival without all the leaves transpiring and nutrients placed in the upper-new growth areas.