you will probably get alot of responses on this but I would say the soil was to moist. I have done the method your are doing and also the baggie method. I lighty spray the soil and let it soak through. I then place the slip in and leave the cutting alone. As long as their is condendsation then you will be alright. Some people mist but if your cuttings are in indirect sunlight your fine. I mist mine when I start to harden off the cutting. What I find is the most important PATIENCE

Had that branch flowered before you made a cutting out of it? I have not had one single cutting take that had not previously flowered or at least formed a bud. They have all turned black, just as you described. That may not be the situation you had, though.

It also could be the medium you are using. You should be able to find a light soilless potting mix just about anywhere.

Leaves turning yellow - that just happens sometimes. I have no idea why, but it's not necessarily a sign that the cutting will fail. Some cuttings drop off all of their leaves. I remove dead leaves from the pot immediately as they will grow fungus.

Happy Gardening,
Michelle

Thanks for the ideas. I didn't mist at all after I first moistened the soil as there was condensation and it didn't look like it was drying out. The reason I thought it might be over-moisture was that the veins on the leaves were turning yellow. The veins yellowed first, a long time before the rest of the leaf followed. I thought that was a sign of over-watering, even though I never added any more water.

I don't know what causes the tips of the cutting to mold over?

The leaves also didn't actually fall off the cutting. But when I finally took the top off, the leaves came away from the stem with the slightest touch.

About the branch having flowered -- that's a good idea. I honestly don't know. The cutting wasn't from a plant that I own and it was taken after the plant had already flowered, so I don't know if that particular branch had flowered or not. That was one of my concerns at the time. Well, not that exactly, but I wondered if I was taking too "young" a cutting. Perhaps that was the problem? There were leaves, and it looked like it could have had a bloom although I'm not sure . . . but it was a slender stalk. Not one of the very tips, but fairly young looking. Maybe that was the problem? (or one of them anyways, i'm completely new at this and probably making many mistakes :))

After many efforts and ways of trying to root cuttings of roses I have come to believe it is more catch as catch can than anything else. I have my most success by inserting cuttings directly in the soil which has been mixed with cactus potting soil to insure good drainage and then coverd with a gallon size clean plastic bottle with the bottom cut out. I use the cap to regulate the temp... on and off and plenty of mulch piled upon the sides of the bottle.
I do dip the cuttings is a rooting enhancer.

I think there are general practices that will improve the chance.

- Root them immediately on the day you take cuttings
- Don't take young cuttings, pick the mature ones
- Avoid diseased leaves like plage
- Watch out for temperature, it should be comfortable
- Avoid the wind
- Do it when it's the season for growing.

I don't like baggy method because it creates a small environment where there is no circulation. The cuttings are mroe prone to rot (especially young cuttings, still rich in nitrogen and starch).

One trick that grafters use is to prepare a stem for taking buds. They take leaves off and wait for 2-3 weeks for the leaf buds to become plumb and ready to grow. This trick can be used for taking cuttings as well. After the flower is spent, you take the leaves and the dead flower off along with the young part of the stem. Wait for the leaf buds to become plumb and readyto grow, take the cutting and root it. Doing this in early Spring will give a good chance.

En of winter is at he best time for rooting mature stems. Early Spring is best for soft-wood rooting.

That happened to me last year, sort of. The leaves turned yellow through the veins, and the leaves started turning black. No mold growing on them. Someone on the forum suggested the rose was droughted before I took the cuttings. That made sense, because it was at the end of the summer and I hadn't watered. The cuttings that rooted were the ones from the bush that was half the size of the other one, with a lot smaller root system - so evidently it wasn't in a drought state like the big one was.

This year I took cuttings after we'd had an inch and a half of rain. Just got them done yesterday, so we'll see if they do better than last year's batch did.

Deanna