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lady_alicia

Help with germinating rose seeds

I purchased some rose seeds from a company (Name a Rose)and followed their instructions of simply planting them in soil, covering and keeping moist and placing them on a window sill. I sowed them back in January and nothing yet. I read that they take a long time to germinate, but how long, approximately, am I looking at? I hear they don't need a heating mat, but is that right?

It's extremely important to me that I germinate these because it's for my niece that passed away at birth at Christmas. I want to name the rose I grow after her. Otherwise I wouldn't worry about it so much and be so adamant about getting these to germinate. It would make my brother and his wife so happy. So I have 11 seeds left. :) Should I soak them? Do anything differently?

I do have grow lights because I grow other things, and I have heating mats, but everything I've read so far doesn't say it requires those things.

I figured the Rose pros on here may know what I need to do and be able to offer some advice. :)

Thanks so much!

Alicia

Comments (7)

  • User
    13 years ago

    Alicia,
    Take a look at the article posted at the following link:

    Here is a link that might be useful: roses from seed

  • lady_alicia Zone 5/6 PA
    Original Author
    13 years ago

    Thank you! I'll read that article.

    I also read they need a cold period, and the "instructions" I received with the seeds say they are "ready to be planted," but it didn't allude to the fact of whether they already had a cold period. Perhaps I need to place them in my partially-heated garage where it's cooler than 70 degrees like my house. :)

    Thanks again, trospero!
    Alicia

  • User
    13 years ago

    Alicia,
    The seeds you were sold either had a cold stratification period before you received them, or, more likely, they are a variety of Polyantha rose that is known for not needing a cold dormancy prior to germination. It is not unusual for rose seed to take 4 to 6 weeks, sometimes even more to germinate. I firmly believe that rose seeds germination cycle is affected by the season as well, so that seeds planted in January are likely to take several weeks more to germinate than seeds sown in April.

    PS: I don't think a temperature of 70F will deter germination, but it is believed to be useful to allow the seeds to experience periods of cold during the process as well. And so, it might be worthwhile to place the container you have them planted in somewhere that temps fall below 55 or 60 at nights for a week or ten days. And yes, light will help, so you might hasten germination by placing the seed containers under lights, at 6 to 10 inches from the tubes. Do not place the seeds where the soil temp will exceed 80F or germination may be inhibited!

    Good luck,
    Paul

  • lady_alicia Zone 5/6 PA
    Original Author
    13 years ago

    Oh, thank you so much, Paul. You're wonderful! I've been reading and reading for the last few weeks everything I could find. Although that article you sent me the link to I didn't find, and it was very helpful. So thanks for sending that to me. I actually printed it out for reference.

    I had only planted eight of the seeds and kept 11 others just in case, so I'll place the seeds I've planted under my lights and put them in the garage where I know it has to be 55 degrees.

    Thank you, again, for all of the information. I've never been so determined to germinate seeds as I am with these. :)

    Have a good evening.....
    Alicia

  • kimlanarule_yahoo_com
    13 years ago

    i have chinese green roses and need help planting them. well actually i need help getting starting. if any one can send me some info on these roses it would help me a bunch. thank you in advance!!!

  • seil zone 6b MI
    13 years ago

    Congratulations! Your babies look very healthy! Don't be surprised if you have buds in about 6 weeks. Sometimes they bloom really fast, sometimes not, depends on the varieties involved. I've had a bud form on a plant that was only 2 inches tall! Yeah, they say you should pinch those first buds off...but I never have the heart to do it!

    Paul is a wonderful rosarian and great guy! Go to HMF and look up the roses he has bred. They're all gorgeous! That article is the one that got me started growing roses from seed in 2005. I now have about 150 babies of my own! (sigh) Now if he could just write an article that would help me cull, lol!

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