Why would cultivars that happen to have become favored for greenhouse growing be hard to root? Something about how the cut blooms are handled by the industry, such as chemical treatments? Nutrients leaching out into the water while being held in vases?

How is the stock purchased by floral companies for greenhouse flower production propagated in the first place?

I was able to root a florist rose.

I had read that sometimes a florist rose cannot be rooted because it may have been treated by something like Round-Up. I do not know if that actually is common.

They are probably harder to root because the stems are so young.

I've never had success rooting them, but I think the buddings I did might take!

Good luck Beth that is so interesting! Those are beautiful.

Florists roses are grown in a greenhouse. They are then cut into a bundle , packaged and shipped to a nursery or a florist As you can see they start off in a different way then a gardeners rose. When they get to the florist, they are cut back and placed in a cooler. They may be in the cooler for a week, until someone buys them or a design is made. More handling for the poor rose. Finally when a customers gets the roses, they have gone through a lot. That is usually the main reason florists roses don't last a long time in the warmth of the house. They also don't have a fragrance because the petals are bred much thicker than any of the garden types so the roses can stand all the handling and packaging they go through. So to root a florist rose, it will be easier if the roe has been a vigorous grower. If it was a weaker grower, then it is not your fault it won't make roots. Take about 5 cuts and do them all in a different way. Try rooting in florist oasis, potatoes, plain vermiculite etc

Place each cutting in a large clear pop bottle to keep it moist.This helps to see if you are getting a fungus or if the roots are starting. When you see roots starting unscrew the top. Let's see if this works.

https://buffalo-niagaragardening.com/2013/10/15/grow-rose-bush-from-wedding-bouquet-or-use-any-roses-you-get-from-the-florist/

I'm not really sure why they are so difficult to root. Oldrosarian you are probably right about the fact that the roses are most likely several days to a week old, and may be past the prime to get them to root. I try to buy them the day they arrive at Safeway. The ones that have been there a day or more don't look as fresh as the newly delivered ones. I have tried numerous ways to root them over the last few yrs with not a lot of luck. This time around I am putting several in a 1gal pot, in a mixture of a little bit of potting mix, some organic stuff our Ace Hardware sells that they call Planting Mix (which is very rich-looking and soft), and a lot of perlite. Oh, and I used Clonex gel for the rooting hormone. I am not covering them this time, just going to set the pots in a shady area and mist them daily til I see what happens. This worked really well with some of my own rose cuttings last yr. I did manage to get two florist varieties to root last yr, but those I had bagged up the pot inside a big 2gal zip-lock baggie. I got 3 out of 12 of CHERRY BRANDY, and 1 out of 12 of GELATO. I can hardly wait to see those bloom!!

Thanks for the link to the video Oldrosarian. Maybe with the next batch (if there is one) I will try just perlite and use the 2gal zip-lock baggies again. I'm just having fun trying to root them.

Don't give up. I have quite a number of florist roses growing in my garden and they were all rooted by me. Granted, my success rate in actually getting them to root is only about 20 percent, but I've been very happy with the ones that I have gotten to take.

My favorite is probably a pinkish red rose that I rooted from a bouquet at Costco. It probably grows to about 6 feet every year and is incredibly vigorous. They really should make it available to the public because it's just fabulous.

This year I am also working on grafting them on to dr. huey rootstock for my florist roses that haven't taken off so well (I will make a separate thread about that)..

Apparently using Roundup on cut roses is called "Devitalisation".

This is done to prevent an imported plant from being used as growth material (by passing quarantine restrictions) rather than just for its cut flowers.

http://www.agriculture.gov.au/SiteCollectionDocuments/aqis/importing/plants-grains-hort/forms/imported-cut-flower-treatment.pdf

Wow Henry thanks for that link. Now I see why it's so hard to propagate them. Dang. Well, I'm still going to keep trying once in awhile to root some, seeing as how I did get some to root last yr. As long as I get the roses the day they deliver them, maybe there'll be a better chance at it.

I've been told that some stems sit in cold storage for up to a year, not just a few weeks. I also tried to root Quicksand a few years ago and a couple stems took, but the resulting plant just never really grew. That's been my experience overall... the rooting isn't necessarily hard - its that the resulting plant lacks vigor.

Really?? A YEAR? I can't even imagine that. So QUICKSAND wasn't a good grower, huh? Well, that sorta figures, since it's an oddball. Those are notoriously slow growers. I still want to try it tho... if Safeway ever gets any more in... and IF I get these PINK FLOYDs to root... then I'll try some more again.