ms_minnamouse, take a look at the link below, the photographs and read all three or four of the entries. This works. It wasn't my idea originally, but I give credit to where I obtained it and show my massaging it to fit my level of laziness. This link is for the Antique Forum where others are reporting their experiences with the method. It's low tech, cheap, EASY and gets them callused to rooted without mess, expense, effort, etc.

http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/rosesant/msg0519533521423.html?19

Read all the blog entries about wrapping cuttings then read the Antique Forum thread I've given the address of above. You CAN root roses. You just haven't hit on the right combination of variables for your area yet. My worst enemy was humidity and keeping them covered once planted. In the mid desert it worked. One mountain range in from the beach, it doesn't. Try it, you'll see!

With rose companies imploding, nurseries of all sizes disappering, roses by the score becoming extinct, we MUST be proficient at propagating them so we may maintain them until this "Dark Ages" ends and a new era of rose expansion begins. It's cyclical. I was at the beginning of the era just ending and it will happen again. Keep the roses circulating so we don't lose the good ones. You CAN do it! Kim

Here is a link that might be useful: Wrapping cuttings

You're right. That must be one of the few methods that I haven't tried yet. I read about it earlier (right after posting actually) and I can't wait to try it!

I wish it would work with other plants, it's so easy and clean.

Well, try it with other plants! The physiology of rooting isn't that different between genera. Explore, experiment and become "the expert", because YOU will have done it! Kim

I'm going to try this wrapping method with some multiflora rootstock cuttings that I need to get going. I am anxious to see this method in action.

On my web site, I have a tutorial for a rooting method that was taught to be by a friend years ago. It worked well for me, and it has worked for others, and I had great success with it.

Be sure to take proper cuttings from a bush in good condition. Another friend says, "Propagate when the petals fall." A cutting for me is this year's growth, with a dead flower on one end and heelwood on the other. All of this is illustrated in the tutorial, linked below.

Here is a link that might be useful: Click on How To