Darlow's Enigma is very easy. The gallicas are relatively easy, but slow, and I think they prefer cooler conditions. If you have a source of cuttings, you may also have a source of suckers. They are considerably easier to deal with. Rugosas are like gallicas, but more so. I don't have a lot of experience with them, but I have found them to be rootable. Others don't.

Thanks for the info. What do you mean by cooler conditions? I have lights in the basement and it usually runs about 65-70F down there in the summer 55F-60F in the winter. I have a propagation bed I built that keeps the soil at about 72F that I've used to root other things but have never tried roses before.

I will have all of these plants soon so will eventually have suckers if they sucker. I like the challange of taking cuttings from plants and coaxing them to root so this is less of a need and more a learning process for me.

I've rooted Rosa Mundi and Rose de Rescht. Although Rosa Mundi wasn't in bloom at the time, and had partially reverted, so I won't know till mine blooms if I got the varigated part to root or not. They worked fine for me, so I assume they are easy to root.

I took a sucker from Blanc Double De Coubert which did nicely for me.

I hear Rugosas are harder to root successfully. I've rooted two so far that seem to have taken, but I prefer to get them from suckers whenever possible. So far with Rugosas I have more failures than successes. I have a very small rooted cutting of what I think is FJ Gootendorst and two very happy rooted cuttings of a semi double white rugosa.

There are a few roses I've had trouble getting to root that I really want. I plan on trying again this spring, and if that doesn't work, I will try rooting them again with dormant cuttings in the fall or winter.Unfortunately, I don't know what any of these roses are called... they are just roses on the side of the road.

In the basement under lights is where I root my roses. The people who have problems with the northern roses seem to be trying to do them outside in the heat.

Mad Spinner, how do you root your roses? Do you have any kind of special setup, misting etc?

Mad Gallica, I am planning on trying this in my basement too. Any tips?

I'm a minamalist. I don't have anything fancy except a jar of rooting hormone.

I have been using some very sandy garden top soil I bought for my raised veggie beds as rooting medium. Potting soil stays too damp or dries out too fast, and my native dirt here is too full of clay... too dense.

I just start them in plastic pots. I usually use gallon pots, two good size cuttings per pot. But not always. I have three very small cuttings brought me by a friend that I thought were too small to sucessfully root. I put them, one each, in band size pots. One died, but the other two seem to be doing well and are putting out leaves.

I keep them watered when it is warm, and make sure they get a little shade in the afternoon when it is summer so they don't dry out too fast or wilt. I've started some in summer, and some in the fall too.

I havn't been doing this for very long, but I've had what I think is pretty good success. I have about 25-30 pots of roses around right now that I have rooted over the last two years. Most of them came from last year, as I was much more successful. I've been having great fun planting the largest ones out in my garden.

A friend of mine is going to put together a misting bed... it will be interesting to see her success with harder to root roses. I'm thinking it will be educational.