Something similar - I had put 4 one gallon pots of little rooted cuttings inside of the half wine barrel I use for tomatoes this Winter (so that we could put 2 cages around it to try and save the cuttings from the deer), right on top of the old soil.

Of course, the squirrels got in and would dig holes, & dig up the cuttings, which I would re-plant. One day I noticed that a piece of one of the cuttings had been broken off, and fallen down onto the soil in the larger pot. When I went to pick it up low and behold, it had rooted right where it fell, in a time period that can't have been more than one or two weeks.

I have also found entire new rose bushes in my garden that are the result of a rose with long canes tip-rooting all by itself with no help from me. When I try and root cuttings in bags, on my glassed in back porch, with all of the precautions, 50% of them die and the other 50% take MONTHS to root!

Maybe I will try just sticking them in the dirt and see what happens....

Jackie

I do it every time I prune a rose. I just did it yesterday when I cut back my mom's red rose and replanted it elsewhere. I'm guessing it's Oklahoma, but I just took one of the cut ends of the rose and stuck it in the ground with no care at all. It seems to be doing pretty good so far.

In my former, more arid and hotter climate, I could root cuttings fairly easily. Moving closer to the coast with the resultant higher humidity and a bit lower heat, I sacrificed MANY cuttings which rotted as quickly as I struck them. I found I could root hibiscus in the open shade with no cover, over winter. A flower cluster from Pookah broke, so I stuck it into the ground behind the plant and the danged thing rooted! This is the actual flowering piece that you're usually taught to toss as it "doesn't contain growth buds". You know the type, what more than half of each cane is on a polyantha bush. Well, it rooted and has made quite a nice plant!

I ran across a method posted on the Rose Hybridizers Association where cuttings are prepared without foliage, wrapped in damp (not WET) newspaper, then in plastic to maintain the moisture, and allowed to remain in the cool, dark for two weeks to callus. I potted each one individually in 16 oz. foam cups with drainage holes poked in the bottoms and put them out front where they received half day morning sun. I used Miracle Grow Moisture Control Potting Soil, but might further try something lighter over winter. Summer, with the higher evaporation rates should still be better with the higher moisture content soil. All of the cuttings callused with many forming true roots in the two weeks of being wrapped. Out of 135 cuttings, I experienced an 80%+ take! The types were HTs, floribundas, species crosses, Banksiaes, Hybrid Musks, polyanthas and shrubs, so it wasn't just with more easily rooted types.

More recently, I prepared three dozen thicker, larger cuttings of virus indexed IXLR, from a few inches as mother plant starts, up to 48" prepared as a standard trunk. I wrapped them as I did the others, put them in two, large black plastic trash bags to retain the moisture and left them in the garage where they'd remain cool. In two weeks, they had all callused, with a few showing real roots. All have been potted, with the longer ones wrapped in strips of white plastic kitchen trash bags to keep them from drying out but permitting light to penetrate the plastic so photosynthesis could continue. I left the top buds on the canes and didn't cover the tops with plastic bags. They've been potted for a bit less than a month and all are pushing new growth from the top growth buds.

What I've taken from this are two things. First, wrapping cuttings of many types of roses permits them to remain alive while they callus and begin forming roots. Planting already callused cuttings increases your chances dramatically. Second, if a high percentage of your cuttings are rotting before they root, the humidity is too high to cover them. Experiment with not covering them, and placing them where they will receive filtered or indirect light. If your area is humid enough, early morning light for a few hours with shade during the hotter hours could also work well for rooting. Of course, less direct sun during the hotter periods of the year are probably better. The IXLR cuttings I "hid" among the shaded pot ghetto so they received the extra humidity from the larger plants' water transpiration and they got watered when the other pots were watered. Placing them among the larger pots mimicked striking the cutting under the mother plant, like what succeeded with Pookah. Kim

Really remarkable how that can happen. Gotta make you laught too!

Carol

Might it be "Evelyn"?

Kim, thank you so much for the info! All my cuttings were rotting last year within a week. Remember my humidity lamentations? I had covered every single one of them.

I'm gonna try the new way this year. Crossing my fingers....

"I have no clue what rose it is. I think it is funny how carefully I can nurture cuttings in baggies, use sterilized soil, clean everything, distilled water, rooting hormone, etc., etc., and they rot in about an hour, while the cutting I stick in the ground and forget about grows."

Haha I love the irony in that as well.

That is how I do it now--just stick the cuttings in the ground and hope for the best--and it works pretty good, now that I'm running out of places to put roses! I just moved an Apothecary's rose started from a neglected cutting a few years ago. Last year it was a tiny thing with five canes--the constant pruning kept it small--but grew pretty fast once I moved it into a bed protected by fences. This year I started cuttings at the end of winter--they seem to be doing great even though I've not done anything to them.

Stick and forget is the only way I've ever been successful at rooting a cutting! Covered not coverd, soil or coir, makes no difference, they rot.

You're welcome flaurabunda. After posting it, I sat down and created a blog with photos to make it easier. See if this works for you. Kim

Here is a link that might be useful: Pushing the Rose Envelope

Yes; excellent blog post!

Thank you. I hope it helps! Kim

A couple times I inserted cuttings of China and miniature directly in soil and they grew great root balls. I think healthy soil with lots of active microbes and bacteria provides a very good chance for rooting. And with an easy-to-root variety, success is nearly 100%.

I've tried to nurture about 6 cuttings, and used two pruned rose stems to mark bulbs early this year. One of the two markers is the only one that is starting new growth!

One of the two markers is the only one that is starting new growth!

That's a good one! LOL.

Thanks roseseek (Kim) for that tip, now I MUST try that to see what happens. Not that I need more roses...

I will have to try this myself. I have only had one cutting make it, to be eaten about two weeks after rooting by a large cat who is lucky I love him ;D