People trade unrooted cuttings through this forum all the time and have great fun doing it. So, that would be a yes.

"Do you think this is a good way for beginners to get roses?"

Absolutely, if you are willing to learn and have patience to grow the young plants on to maturity. Remember, it can take up to 5 years to get a mature specimen of some varieties when grown from a cutting. The great advantage is that you may have opportunities to acquire varieties that are difficult (or impossible) to obtain from commercial sources!

"How many cuttings live to maturity and how many cuttings die."

That depends on a lot of factors, including your skill level, in what condition the cuttings are when you receive them, how difficult that particular variety is to root, etc etc. In ideal conditions, nearly 100% of them will root. If conditions and circumstance are not in your favor, you can expect you will not get a single cutting to root sometimes. To start, it would be best to request cuttings of varieties that are easy for beginners.

"How long did it take you to get good at propagation."

If you follow some of the simplest techniques (there will be a link provided at the bottom) you can get pretty good at it on the first try, providing the cuttings are in good health and taken at the right time of year.

"Was there a learning curve associated with it."

Well, yes. Few skills worth learning in life do not have some learning curve associated with them! But its not going to be too intimidating, I promise you.

"Do you think ebay is a good place to get cuttings?"

No. Because most times people will charge money for them, and you will find many people on this forum are quite willing to mail you cuttings for free or for the cost of postage. No need to go to eBay for that!

"I could go on and on with questions but I think you get the idea. Having been there I feel sorry for all the people that get rose cuttings and then watch them slowly die. I would love to hear some more thoughts on this subject."

And here we come to the instructional part. The link provided below outlines in very simple terms, with illustrations, how to easily propagate roses from cuttings at home. Feel free to post questions if you have any, after reading the article.

Good luck!
Paul

There is definitely a learning curve involved. Cuttings can smell fear. You have to have a certain amount of faith in the process, and leave them to do their thing.

There are a couple of cold-climate quirks. The one is that rooting produces an own-root rose. Duh. However, there are classes of roses that I have found just aren't worth fighting as own-root roses. Another is that rooting the rose is usually the easy part. The harder part is getting it through that first winter. Even for hardy roses, they can have trouble because they are just babies.

This is a serious question. Is multiflora a weed where you are? A lot of the easiest roses to root are multiflora hybrids of some sort. However, there are temperature and soil limits to where they grow well.

Gallicas: straight forward to root, but often fairly slow. They sucker, so most people with established plants are happier with sending suckers during planting season instead of cuttings during the summer. While rootable by the inexperienced, they aren't really good confidence builders. Once rooted, they can go out the next spring. and after a couple of years become nice, well established plants.

Albas: we've never managed to succeed with rooting albas. They are one of the notoriously difficult classes.

Damasks: like gallicas, except as a group they are more tender, more prone to disease and not as satisfactory as plants.

Centifolias: like damasks except more so. Lurking in this group and the gallicas are roses that originally were classed as China Hybrids. At this point in time, their major purpose seems to be as old European once bloomers that might stand a chance in an area with no chill hours. The china genes definitely affect hardiness, and it's not uncommon for these to be listed as hardy to 5B.

Rugosas: a group I have little first hand experience with because they object to my soil and my lack of sun. Usually they are described as somewhat tricky to difficult. It may be a matter that they prefer somewhat coolish conditions to root. The Explorer rugosas, as hybrid rugosas, seem to be more forgiving of what I can give them, but may be even trickier to root. Another group that often suckers.

Explorers: I have no experience in rooting these. I have gotten some already rooted as trades for gallica suckers, so expect they aren't too difficult. The larger ones can take forever to grow up as own-root plants, however, so make sure you bring your patience.

Spinossissimas and Kin: this would include Harison's Yellow and R. foetida. Another notoriously difficult to root class that usually is traded as suckers. Given that a couple of them have regularly showed up on own-root nursery availablity lists, some may be easier than others. Mine have usually arrived as suckers. They seem to be easier to establish if moved either early or late in the growing season.

Darlow's Enigma: this rose goes in a class by itself because there really isn't anything else quite like it. It is obviously part multiflora, but can handle much higher soil pH than most mulitflora hybrids. It's quite easy to root, and has a truly amazing tolerance of a wide range of climates.

Buck roses: most of these root quite easily, but in my climate are fairly disastrous as own-root roses. The hardy ones aren't disease resistant, and the disease resistant ones aren't hardy. They may be a good group to play around with though, since what you would be planting out the next spring isn't that different from what you would be paying real money for from a real nursery.

Austin roses: like Buck roses here. The biggest difference is that it is humanly possible to buy grafted Austins, and see that the understock really does make a difference.

Polyanthas and the hardier Hybrid Musks: these are what you see pictured in the dictionary under garden multiflora hybrids. Very easy to root, but it doesn't sound like they would like your conditions.

Hope this helps.

Regards,
Paul

Then I found Paul's site again. Round 2--used a deep clear plastic bin instead of ziplocs (they provided the cat with too much entertainment, and the wood sticks were the first thing to grow mold), followed the instructions a little more closely (although I didn't have any water-soluable fertilizer, didn't have all cuttings from spent blooms, and butchered them with a dull pocket knife, and my potting media was again way too wet.) Out of 6 cuttings, one rooted, and now I have a baby Felicite Parmentier putting out leaves on my window sill.

Ready for round 3, and might try the ziplocs again (my plastic bin was catching rain water, but now it's a block of ice.) Might try plastic instead of wood sticks to keep the bags from collapsing. I'll see what else I didn't do last time and try it this time, and I saw another good description of preparing the cuttings that looks a little easier (I think on Vintage's web site--it also removes that oh-so-deadly pocket knife from the equation. Ouch!)

If I had followed these directions closely the first time, I'd probably be having more success, but I'm having a great deal of fun and I already have a new plant.

The wonderful thing is that kind people with experience are posting these step-by-step instructions, so that you have a place to start when you have no idea how to go about propagation from cuttings. If I were in the business of propagation, I'd be more worried about a perfect success rate, but for an absolute beginner who fails to follow directions to get a plant on the 2nd attempt, it looks like trading cuttings opens up a world of opportunities (and the necessity for a much bigger yard!)

One question--how do you prepare cuttings for mailing? I'd think you'd wrap the end in a damp paper towel and stick them in a ziploc bag.

Yup, thats about it. Many people use wetted newspaper instead, but either is fine. However, wrap the whole bundle of cuttings, not just the ends.

Paul

Paul

If you take a cheap Bic pen, and unscrew it, you end up with a hard, hollow tube. We called this an inflator. You can almost seal the baggie while blowing into this tube. Then quickly pull the tube out and close the baggie the rest of the way.

Also, we always found it easier to manage the moisture in the baggie if the cuttings were in peat pots instead of just in the baggie. Then extra water could just get poured out. Moistening the mix to the proper consistency was always something we had trouble with, since it usually took several days before it would soak up enough water that it should be squeezed out.

There are nifty-keen ways to fold the baggies so they sit up well, but I'll need pictures to even begin to explain that.

Could you tel me your technique for rooting albas and mosses? Which varieties you've rooted successfully? When did you take the cuttings? Rooting medium? Etc. I'm still struggling with these two classes.

Robert

Inflating the bags--HAH! That's a great idea. Mine weren't inflated--just stuck the cuttings in with some sticks to keep the bags upright.

And the cat will love them even more--"Oh, look, little square balls to attack!"

Earlier this year, in response to requests, I put a photo tutorial on my web site so everyone can learn that it's easy to root roses. Honestly, the hardest part of the process for me is leaving the thing alone for a few weeks .... I tend to mess with stuff. The milk jugs are good for other people like me, because you can see the roots through the pot as they develop.

Last winter, my basement workshop was full of milk jug/soda bottle cuttings, under fluorescent lights on a chrome rack from Costco. For summer cuttings, the containers should be left outside in a shady place (like under a bush) -- direct sun will cook your cuttings. The way the soda top fits into the milk jug allows a little bit of rain in to keep the soil from drying out, and the big holes in the jug allow for good drainage.

The link to the tutorial is below.

If you have questions, just let me know.

Connie

Connie

P.S. I'd love to hear your plan for your apple tree. I have one of my own that needs some salvation. It's the last tree from an orchard that I know was here in the 1890's. You can contact me through my web site, or here on GW.