Hi Cindi,

You could possibly get better directions from somone other than myself. However, I just spend this afternoon digging up some roses in Waco to bring back to plant in my yard. I was with my mentor (whos is over me in our MG Greenhouse). We'll be supervising our new volunteers as we cut and root the wood. We may need to talk more at length about this through email vs. here. Care to write me?

This is actually a good time to take rose cuttings. And your temps will be dropping again shortly. Be sure not to use young canes... they don't have enough age on them to support them while they are trying to root. So, go down on the stems till you get some wood about the width of a pencil. Provided that you've rooted other cuttings, then you know the process.

Cut witin 1/4" below the bottom leaf node (of course, you'll remove the leaf). You might want to get a GOOD rooting hormone. We have some Hormodin 3 (which is 3x's sronger than Rootone) which is too strong for soft wood cuttings (ideal for hard wood cuttings). We also have some Dip n' Grow. So, we'll be trying several methods to determine which one works best for us.

Ideally, you'd want to put two nodes in the soil/sand and two nodes above. Cut back yoru leaves, unless you want to leave ONE leaf (max 2) on the top node. We are going to try a couple of different things. One is that we'll be cutting to the opposite sides of the bottom node. But, VERY thin... just remove the top layer off the cutting. Make it about 1/4" above the node and to the end of the node which is about 1/4" below to the end of the cutting. If you try this, you'll need a wet rooting hormone like the Dip n' Grow because you'll be sticking the cutting into a vial filled with the clear liquid. BTW, we make our bottom cuts straight across. We don't cut diagonally like what you read elsewhere. Then, dibble the sande insert your cutting. Since you'll be trying them in an aquarium, you can moisten the sand and then cover the top so that it keeps somewhat moist in there, but not really wet. You might as well do a couple of dozen cuttings since you'll have the space in the aquarium as you'll be putting them a couple of inches apart.

Wait about 6 weeks+ before you expect to be able to recognize whether the cuttings took or not. Then, you might as well wait another 2 weeks before you CAREFULLY pull the sand back and pull the cuttings up and out to plant in a pot.

Lastly, if this works well for you, and there's no reason why it shouldn't.. then you'll owe me a couple of rooted cuttings... :-). And you'll have extras to share or trade.

I hope that I explained everything sufficiently so you know what to do. I hope you keep in touch with me to let me know of your success. You can use wood that is larger than a pencil, too, but I wouldn't go too much larger.

Keep in touch and good luck!
Xtal

Was this successful Cindi?