I am new to roses. I have a very old & abandoned, 8 foot tall & woody rose bush. She was only producing 1-2 medium sized red roses at a time. Last spring, I cut it down to 5 feet, just above where it was branching. There is a 3 foot trunk on this old gal.

Following that hard pruning, I consistently laid used coffee grounds around the base to acidify the soil. We have enjoyed 4-5 large red blooms at a time throughout the year, so there's life left in the old gal. The blooms are very red and fragrant.

For this spring, I have decided to propagate by air-layering. This will be my first time air layering, as well. I did 2 from thick, productive, green branches and 2 from brown barked branches w/new, healthy green forked branches. Will take pictures & share as I go along.

Here's what I did...

1. Prepared materials for four air-layerings:

- Four 6x12" rectangles plastic wrap or other clear plastic.

- Four 6x12" rectangles aluminum foil

- One 9"x16" sheet sphagnum moss or sufficient loose sphagnum moss to cover that surface. Place in approx. 9"x16" pan. Add about a cup of water to moisten. Cut into four sections of approx 2" strips.

- Garden soil

- Strong cord string, tape, scissors, small, clean knife.

2. Lay out the four plastic rectangles and place about a cup of garden soil on top of one end of the plastic only. You don't want it across the entire plastic. You're going to use the plastic to wrap around a ball of soil.

3. Using knife, score/mark off 1" of bark where new roots are to grow.

4. Within that 1" of bark, scrape off all outer green or brown bark until you reach the white underlying surface.

5. Squeeze excess water from a strip of sphagnum moss (you want it wet, not super drippy) and wrap to around the "wound" - use the entire strip.

6. Holding the moss in place, carefully begin to wrap plastic & garden soil around moss. It's a bit of a tricky maneuver ... All the soil should be concentrated around the moss in a large ball...this is where new roots will come in. Wrap the plastic around the soil, sealing off the bottom end with string. Tie off, wrap lightly up around ball of soil sealing off the top tightly, then come back down to secure the soil in place and tie off. Cut off any excess plastic. If the soil is very dry, you can add a few drops of water from the top of the plastic before tying off.

7. The key to a good air layering is an airtight seal. Tightly wrap sealing/packing tape around the ends of the plastic.

8. To protect your project from the hot rays of the sun,wrap in aluminum foil and tie off as you did above with the plastic.

This should "cook" for about a month to two, at the end of which you should see roots coming in when you remove the foil.

Once the roots come In, cut branch just below the roots. Plant in individual pots, water, and cover with plastic (head to toe) for a week or two in order to allow a strong root system to grow. After that period of acclimation, these can be planted in ground as new, individual rose bushes.

As you can see, the "bush" I cut a few months back has already grown to its original size.

Your comments, tips, and recommendations are greatly appreciated.