Try using a rooting agent that has disease control in it like rootone. It prevents the roots from rotting. I have 90% of my cuttings rooted. I don't have the problem you have
Email me and I'll see If I can help

I had the same thing happen, and I used a rooting hormone. Not sure if it had disease control in it. I gave up.

Sandy

I use a clear plastic drink cup with a hole poked in the bottom for the pot so I can see what's going on in there. I also put the potted cutting into a two gallon zip lock bag, place the bag in a shady spot outside and forget it for six weeks -- there's no watering or misting because the bag is zipped up to retain moisture. Now if you want to stick hundreds of cuttings that won't work but I just make onesies and twosies. Using sand instead of potting soil can also improve your odds. Some roses root VERY easily (Pink Pet comes to mind) and some are nearly impossible. If you have any chinas, practice on those to develop your technique. Good luck!

Cecily's right about some roses rooting easily and others being nearly impossible. It could be you are just trying to root difficult roses.

FYI, I have also had many cuttings begin to leaf out and then promptly turn brown/black and die. It just part of the game. In reality, those cuttings never really began to develop roots at all. The quick initial sighting of new growth is meaningless as to the final success of roots actually developing.

You're in a warm zone like me, so here's a few that I have had good success in rooting:

Mrs Dudley Cross (the easiest of all my roses)
Paul Neyron (very easy)
Thomas Affleck (no problem)
Pink Gruss an Aachen (this one is surprisingly easy)
David Austin's 'Heritage' (I simply stuck three cuttings directly into the ground & one was a success)
Gilbert Nabonnand (not quite as easy to root as the others, but I've done it)

Best of luck,
Randy

... fyi, in my experience, the powder rooting hormones have not had any noticeable impact on my success rate. So, I don't use them any more.

Randy

I tried to root Maitland White, which is supposed to root easily. I might try the zip-loc method with sand. I used organic potting soil, but maybe it has organisms in it.

I used to root tons of cuttings from various houseplants by just sticking them in a glass of water. Has anyone ever tried this with roses?

Sandy

Sandy, 'organic' soil is a disadvantage when you try to root IMHO. You need soiless mix that is a sterile seed starting or potting mix - light that never gets soggy. baggy method never worked for me - we have more than enough humidity as it is, so the cuttings rotted in no time.

On the other hand, I rooted several cuttings just to insert them into the soil where they were somewhat shaded and close to some bigger plants that soaked up the excessive moisture when we had too much rain. Yes, it did happen ages ago that we had too much rain.

I prfere using dip and grow or Clonex rooting gel.

i live in england (gb)always taken rose cutting -hard wood cutting straight into the outside soil.never tried softwood cuttings before.just retired to spain europe.will try their.some question on softwood cuttings-whatsoil is best equal peat and pearlite,/equal sand and pearlite?do you use a fungacide on the cutting like copperdip.i have just bought some of your dip n-grow hormon concentrate.what is the best mix for roses.i am going to try potting the cuttings up in equal peat and pearlite.useing a cover to stop water dispersing.with a water bottom so the air inside wil dbe kept damp.any more ideas would be welcomed.i dont know what the weather is like where you live but in spain it is to hot to grow most things in july/august ecept for oranges and lemons ext,the farms over here start in september .putting all their potatoes.cabbages.lettuce.tomatoes.in the fieds.and keep cropping all through the winter months up to july when it all stops again.tempertues then reach 45centigrade.you just have to clean up your gardens and sheds ext,ready for september.so iam ready to start my roses.please give me some more of your good advise.thank you bob Dunford.

Can you please tell us which Zone 9 you are in and what kind of roses you are trying to root? There are dozens of ways to root roses-- different ways with high success rates in different climates or different seasons. For example, right now is a terrific time to root roses in NorCal because the rain keeps the cuttings damp. It's the lazy gardener's dream.

I root in small greenhouse-like structures - - things like a Juwel coldframe or a clear Rubbermaid box turn over on top of cuttings in band. Or I root in pots in the open air in winter. Cast off prunings root in the mulch. Softwood works best when the weather is warm. Those are done in Rubbermaids (I keep the bottoms open for drainage and water as needed) under an arbor covered with shade cloth so they get morning and late afternoon sun only. We use SuperSoil as our potting mix. The trick is to keep the cutting damp without rotting the portion under the soil. A soak in willow water before sticking has a slight disinfectant quality, and I recommend it.

Selecting the wood to root is important. Softwood should have lots of bud eyes and need not be particularly beautiful. My personal preference is for slightly larger flowering wood from the current season, definitely larger than softwood cuttings, which are tiny and leafy. Hardwood, larger than pencil-sized canes, work best in winter. Stick them out in gallon pots and come back in the late spring.

I like to root in bands because the roots reveal themselves through the bottom. Black plastic helps heat the roots (something we need here) while the open bottom facilitates drainage. Top growth is rarely a sound indicator of rooting, and it seems obvious when you look at the sentence. It's RooTS you want, after all. Without rooting hormone, which I never use, some roses can take a really long time to root. Patience.

Cass, you had excellent photos of what kind of cuttings to take. Could you re-post those for those who didn't have a chance to see them?

I have had good luck simply sticking a hardwood cutting right in the ground next to the parent plant. So far I've got a few babies preparing to bloom. English roses root easily for me, as do most tea roses. But mostly I think I've just been lucky.

I try not to have expectations, and just strike cutting to see what happens. Some rot. Some live.

Okay....I'm not sure which photos I used....but I've put up a variety.

To keep you motivated, keep in mind that when you're finished, {{gwi:335227}} is what you get.

This is my idea of {{gwi:335228}}: with a bit of heel, nice fat budeyes, my favorite proportion (3 up, 3 down), large enough not to dry out. There are reasons to use softwood, but in my climate, this is easy.

Leaves aren't as important as roots. Here are two demonstrations. First, {{gwi:335229}} but just about to leaf out. Second, almost no cane left because of evil die back (looks like botrytis) but{{gwi:335230}}

If you want to stick {{gwi:335231}} you can do it in the fallow vegetable garden, but then you won't be able to plant in April or even May. Here's a rootstock-sized {{gwi:335232}}

Experiment. On the left is mahogany-colored {{gwi:335233}} that was 24 inches tall. Actually, it was a pruned cane I stuck next to a small own root rose I had planted in 2003. They grew into{{gwi:267091}}

I don't have any decent shots of softwood cuttings on this drive.

Here's the {{gwi:335234}} full of rooted cuttings.

Hope this helps.

--
Cass

If I could add my $.02 into the discussion I 'd suggest you switch to coconut coir as your rooting medium, and then get yourself the following;
Misting system for about $20 -
Cheapie timer - $40
Cheapest shelving unit, usually about $25 at Target

Mist the cuttings for about 12 hours a day in filtered light, and you should be good to go.

As an example, Digger sent me some cuttings on 7/3/07 of Lucille Ball. Here is one of the cuttings on, I believe, 7/28; notice all the roots already.
{{gwi:312909}}

Here are all the cuttings as of 9/25/07;
{{gwi:329938}}

It just takes some practice, and before long you'll have it down to an art!

Talking about softwood cuttings and rooting in the summer: IMHO misting and coco coir do not solve all the problems although coir is far better than any other medium I tried of which peat was the absolute worst.

In the first summer when I used coir and had a misting table, almost all cuttings rooted while next year close to none; in the second and third year I actually could root more cuttings last fall/early winter without mist than in several months in summer. Our summers are very hot and humid as a rule. I had to ponder what could have caused such a dramatic difference, especially because the rotting instead of rooting continued this summer, too.

My tentative answers strictly for myself - are:

1.) In the first year, that is in 2005, when I used coir and misting we had frequent showers in summer; not steady rain but frequent showers and they came during the day, not night. This meant that the cuttings were taken from well-hydrated plants while in the drought in 2006 and 2007 the mother plants could not be well hydrated. This year we had watering restrictions, so the problem was even worse.

2.) In 2005 we diligently kept up our spraying schedule so I had no blackspot, therefore the plants were healthy so were the cuttings, meaning that the cuttings also had been treated with fungicide prior to taking them. Obviously, in 2005 the cuttings could keep their leaves while in 2006 and 2007 when, due to surgeries and other 'fun' occupations, the regular spraying lapsed, delayed or suspended. Although the cuttings looked OK when I took them, they lost they leaves soon on the misting table. Strangely enough Clotilde S., Perle dÂOr and Arethusa that rooted like weed before and never were sprayed all rotted this year too. So did Crepuscule and Buff Beauty.

3.) This last comment is just a side note, mentioned with hesitation, since I am quite uncertain about its significance; it happened only once this year but I was totally taken back that it could have happened. Spider mites were so bad this year (never before) that when I checked my cuttings on the misting table a week after striking them, I saw fine webbing extending from one tray to another - the web was not destroyed by the mist. It was just unreal. As a consequence I found a lot of papery brown dry leaves on the table, under the mist. (Obviously, I didnÂt see or notice any living things on the cuttings when I took them.)

I tried to wash the next series of cuttings in Consan (kind of Lysol) but I didnÂt see much change. I also moistened the coir with a weak Consan solution and added dissolved Aliette to the rooting medium  these seemed to help somewhat but I think that getting some rain in the last months helped more.

So this year, I guess, I will try more hardwood cutting as I did before; no leaves are needed for those as Cass stated above, and because we resumed spraying I hope that I will start with healthy cuttings. It will be interesting to see how those cuttings will do that I take from roses I didn't and do not spray.

All in all I think outside Âenvironmental - factors do contribute to the success or failure of rooting.

Any critique or corrections of these observations are most welcome.

P.S. Cass is also right about having patience  certain roses root in ten days while some others take a long time. Years ago, in the pre-misting period, I suffered with Zephirine Drouhin a lot and was frustrated because I promised a rooted clone to a friend. Then I got mad, I inserted cuttings in to the ground and I forgot about them. During the winter cleanup, to my surprise I found four or five ZD rooted in that spot.

P.P.S. all described above do not imply that McGleason has very special gifts as rooting concerned.

Sorry for the last sentence, it can be misunderstood. What I meant: all described above do not question that Mcgleason has very special talent in rooting roses.
I, however, do not have this gift, so I try to leearn and lessen the impact of outside environmental etc. variables or impediments.

Well, whatever, it is not a talent as much as trial and error. I have to say I do not ever have to worry about water restriction here! I'm allowed to pump directly from a creek running through the property, so my water bills do not show the amount of water I pump on those babies.

My mist is pretty strong, and I've never seen any spider mites, though the sparrows fly in and drink when the misters are on. Not a big problem though they do knock over some of the containers. By the way, the mist is not from the creek, but from the faucet.

We had expecially hot weather this past summer (at least for us - low to mid 90's), and I really saw no difference in the time to root. I keep a log of all the roses I try, and the days until I see the first roots. Obviously that is pretty easy since I use those clear containers. I think the longest any particular rose took this year were my Patsy CLine cuttings from U Cal-Davis. I cut those on 7/28 and the first one rooted on 8/28. The rest were rooted by 9/5, but that was by far the longest time for any one rose to take. By contrast, the Mon Cheri I got from UCD at the same time as Patsy Cline all were rooted by 8/23.