Tom,

You might as well give it a shot. I have great success rooting my own roses, even when the leaves fall off fairly quickly. A florist rose from a funeral arrangement . . . may be a completely different situation . . . hmmm . . . maybe it will root, maybe it won't. It definitely won't root if you don't try.

I gather from the tone of your message that rooting roses isn't something you've tried to do before. If you're still determined to try (I would if it was me) and the rose is in good shape (never wilted and is currently well hydrated), I have very specific instructions in a photo tutorial in the How To section on my web site. If you have any questions, please email me.

Connie

P.S. If you are unable to root this particular rose, next spring you could buy a similar rose to plant in your garden as a memorial. There are many ways to honor the passing of a loved one -- don't put too much pressure on yourself.

Here is a link that might be useful: Hartwood Roses

Do you have any experience with cleft grafting? This is where you cut a slit in a rootstock rose stem and insert a piece of the desired rose. Anyhow, while the directions IÂve seen say to work with dormant roses, IÂve used cleft grafting to rescue and propagate actively growing roses. If you want to try, IÂd suggest selecting an actively growing rose (potted would be ideal), then cleft graft to a stem of the actively growing rose, leaving most of the actively growing rose to provide the energy. Cover the grafted piece with a plastic bagÂI like to wrap the plastic bag low enough on the stem to cover several leaves of the root-stock rose, since I suspect this increases the moisture level in the bag. You will need to find some way of shading the plastic bag (just the plastic bag, hopefully not the rest of the rose) so you donÂt cook the grafted rose piece. Keep track of where the grafted piece is (remember, it will be only one small piece on a larger rose). Once the grafted piece has taken, you can then cut off pieces of the grafted rose for other types of propagation. You can find info on cleft grafting on the web.

OK, I just checked you climate zone. With this being zone 5, you would need to find a small potted rose for this, so that the rose could be moved inside to protect from the weather. Also, you only need one or two eyes for cleft grafting.

I donÂt know if this advice is too late, but good luck whatever you try.