How do roses reproduce?
Cuttings are one of the main ways to propagate roses. There are two options – green and cuttings and lignified. The first case is used for summer propagation of garden roses. The second is for winter and spring. And he is the most popular. You can also propagate roses from a bouquet in this way, because in flowering shoots the lower part of the shoot is always woody.
Cutting cuttings
Cuttings for rooting can be cut from any part of the shoot, with the exception of the top with the flower. Each cutting should have 2 nodes – this is the place where the leaves are attached to the stem and where the buds are located. The thickness of the cuttings should be at least 5 mm – too thin ones will not take root. The lower cut should be oblique – it is made just below the node, retreating approximately 5 mm. Why oblique? But because callus (tissue from which roots then grow – a kind of white growth) is best formed around the cut. And the larger its area, the more callus. And one more thing: it is very important to make cuts with a sharp knife – if the tissue of the shoot is wrinkled, it will most likely rot and will not produce roots. The top cut should be straight. It is done by retreating the same 5 mm from the node. Why direct? Moisture leaves the shoot through the wound, and it is also an open gate for infection. That is why the area of the upper cut should be minimal.
Preparation of cuttings
The lower leaves of the cut cuttings are removed. And the upper ones are shortened – rose leaves usually consist of 3 or 5 segments, but you only need to leave 2. The lower end of the cutting is dusted with a root formation stimulator – Heteroauxin or Kornevin are suitable (1). For reliability, it is useful to cover the upper cut with children’s plasticine. Continue further
Soil for rooting cuttings
- river sand with peat in a ratio of 1:1;
- river sand with leaf soil in a 1:1 ratio.
Sand in this case is a leavening agent. And peat or soil provide moisture retention, which means you will have to water the planted cuttings less often.
Conditions for rooting cuttings
The cuttings are buried about 1 cm into the substrate. But you can’t just stick them in – this can crush the cut tissue and roots will not form. You need to make holes with a stick or pencil, insert the cuttings there and lightly squeeze the soil with your hands.
Then the cuttings need to be watered well. And be sure to cover it with either a jar or a plastic bag so that there is always high air humidity around the planted cuttings. But! It is necessary (required!) to remove the jar (bag) once a day to ventilate the cuttings – otherwise they will become moldy and rot.
Another important point: the soil temperature should be about 21 °C, and the air temperature 2 – 3 °C lower (2). There is no place for cuttings on the windowsill – it is always cooler there than necessary, and cold soil combined with high humidity always leads to an outbreak of fungal diseases.
And, of course, cuttings need a lot of light. But not direct sunlight is best – they will provoke increased evaporation of moisture from the leaves, as a result of which the cuttings may dry out.
Methods for cutting roses
Roses can be propagated from cuttings at almost any time of the year. And there are several interesting methods that allow you to propagate roses more efficiently.
Cuttings of roses from a bouquet
The lifespan of bouquets given on March 8 is short-lived – in most cases they will last no more than a week. And we really want this beauty to be with us always. But this is possible! For example, you can take cuttings from roses from a bouquet and then grow them in the garden.
Cuttings will take root only if the roses in the bouquet were fresh. It is useless to root dried shoots. But how can you tell how fresh a flower is?
“The first thing you need to pay attention to is the sepals, small green “leaves” at the very base of the flower,” advises agronomist-breeder Svetlana Mikhailova. – If they are raised up, literally “hug” the bud, then the flower is fresh. If they are down, it means the rose was cut a long time ago.
The second indicator of freshness is leaves.
“If you take a flower in your hands and the leaves begin to fall off, it means the rose is not fresh,” says Svetlana Mikhailova.
By the way, many buyers focus on the degree of flower bloom. They think that if a rose still has buds, it means it was cut recently. Nothing like this!
“Until the moment of sale, roses are stored in the refrigerator,” explains Svetlana Mikhailova. “They are even transported in refrigerators.” Under such conditions the bud will not open. Moreover, flowers are always stored and transported “dry”, without water – they are simply packed in paper. And no one knows how long the rose spent in this form.
It happens that roses spend a week or more without water and in the cold. The buds will remain unopened, but the plant has already died. And so you bring home a bouquet, put it in the water, hoping that the flowers will bloom now. But their heads just hang there, never opening. They are dead. And it makes no sense to cut such roses.
“This often happens with Dutch roses,” says Svetlana Mikhailova, “because they are brought from afar. But now there are a lot of Russian greenhouse roses on the flower market. They are usually much fresher.
And it’s easiest to cut them.
Cuttings of roses in winter
In winter, you can take cuttings from purchased roses, for example, from the same bouquets. Or specially buy a flower you like in the store. In this case, the method of propagation by semi-lignified cuttings is used.
Cuttings of roses in spring
Experts do not recommend radical pruning of roses in the fall; it is better to pin the shoots to the ground for the winter, and if you use this particular technology, then spring cuttings of roses are your option. After the winter shelter has been removed from the plants, they need to be pruned – cut out frozen branches and remove excess stems. So these very extra stems are excellent material for cuttings.
In this case, the standard method of propagation by semi-lignified cuttings is also used.
Cuttings of roses in summer
In summer, roses actively grow shoots, and at this time you can use the second method of propagation – green cuttings. They are cut from May to July, but it is better in the budding phase (3).
The shoot intended for cuttings must be strong and completely green. The cuttings are cut about 10 cm long, but it is important that they have 2–3 buds. The upper cut is made directly above the kidney. The lower one is oblique, just below the kidney. The lower leaves should be removed, leaving a couple of the topmost ones. And trim them so that out of 3–5 plates only two remain.
Before planting, cuttings should be placed in Heteroauxin solution for 12 hours to stimulate root formation.
The prepared cuttings are planted in a shkolka – a secluded, quiet place with fertile soil, buried 1,5 – 2 cm. Watered well and covered with film. Roses are light-loving plants, however, under the scorching rays of the sun, the cuttings begin to evaporate moisture too actively and are more likely to dry out than to take root. Therefore, the school should be done either under the light shade of trees, or the cuttings should be shaded with pine branches or burlap.
Cuttings planted in a school should be watered frequently – the soil should be moist all the time. And in hot weather it is useful to rinse the film with cold water.
The roots of green rose cuttings usually form after 3-4 weeks – this is indicated by new leaves. After this, the film must be gradually opened so that the plants get used to the open air – first for a couple of hours in the morning, then longer and longer. After 2 weeks, the film is removed completely.
In the future, young roses must be constantly watered and carefully covered for the winter. In the spring they can be planted with a clod of soil in permanent places.
Cuttings of roses in potatoes
In this way, you can root both green and semi-lignified cuttings. They are prepared in the standard way, but before planting they are stuck into potatoes, and only then they are planted together with the tuber in a schoolyard in the garden.
Why do they do this? And in order to prevent the cuttings from drying out, if it is not possible to water them often, this method will be useful for weekend gardeners. The potatoes are juicy. The moisture is retained in it for a very long time, and even if the soil is dry, the cutting will not die.
Cuttings of roses using the burrito method
This method of rooting cuttings is becoming more popular year after year. And it got its name from the Mexican equivalent of shawarma – burrito. And you will understand why.
The point is this. The lower cut, as with traditional cuttings, is dusted with a root formation stimulator. Then the cuttings, several pieces at a time (usually 5–10 are recommended), are wrapped in 2–3 layers of newspaper or paper towels, moistened with water so that the paper is moist but not wet, and then loosely (it is important that air penetrates inside) they are wrapped in polyethylene. It turns out to be a kind of package, similar to that same shawarma-burito. It is placed in a dark, cool place with a temperature of 14 – 18 °C.
It is important! If the temperature is lower, roots will not form. And if it is higher, the cuttings will either dry out (even constant moistening often does not help), or become covered with mold and begin to rot.
As a rule, callus on cuttings forms after 3 weeks. If this does not happen, the cuttings are again wrapped in paper (if it is dry, you need to moisten it again) and film and again sent to a dark, cool place.
When callus is formed, the cuttings are planted one at a time in pots in light nutritious soil (mixes for traditional rooting of cuttings are suitable) so that only 1 bud is above the surface of the soil, watered and covered with a jar or bag. And now they need to be placed in a bright (but not in direct sunlight) and warm place – the temperature should be 23 – 25 ° C.
The burrito method, as practice shows, gives a higher percentage of rooting. And even varieties of roses that are difficult to propagate by cuttings produce roots much more readily with this method.
Popular questions and answers
We talked about propagating roses by cuttings with agronomist-breeder Svetlana Mikhailova.
Can all varieties of roses be propagated from cuttings?
Cuttings of polyanthus (Border King, Paul Crampel, Holsiein), climbing (Bobbie James, Snow goose, Polka) and floribunda roses (Apricola, Edelweiss, Tequila) root easily. Hybrid teas take root worse and produce a weak root system. Roses with yellow flowers (Papillon, Golden Tower, Yokey Dokey) take root poorly.
When to prune roses grown from cuttings?
There is no need to prune them in the first year of planting. The first pruning can be done next spring, cutting out dry and frozen branches. It is better to do drastic pruning from the age of 3 years.
Which roses are better: grafted or own-rooted?
Both have their pros and cons. Self-rooted plants do not produce wild shoots, but their root systems are weaker and may suffer in a frosty, snowless winter.
Roses grafted onto rose hips overwinter better, their roots are strong, but wild shoots constantly grow from the rootstock, which need to be removed. And often the vaccination is short-lived.
Sources of
- State catalog of pesticides and agrochemicals approved for use on the territory of the Russian Federation as of July 6, 2021 // Ministry of Agriculture of the Russian Federation
https://mcx.gov.ru/ministry/departments/departament-rastenievodstva-mekhanizatsii-khimizatsii-i-zashchity-rasteniy/industry-information/info-gosudarstvennaya-usluga-po-gosudarstvennoy-registratsii-pestitsidov-i-agrokhimikatov/ - Kudryavets D.B., Petrenko N.A. How to grow flowers. Book for students // M.: Prosveshchenie, 1993 – 176 p.
- Group of authors ed. Milovidova I.B. Flowers around us, 2nd ed., extra. // Saratov, Volga Book Publishing House, 1986 – 160 p.
Reproduction of roses
Roses can be propagated vegetatively and by seeds.
The main method of propagation is the grafting of cultivated varieties of roses onto a rootstock specially grown for this purpose. Roses are propagated vegetatively by cuttings, layering, suckers, dividing bushes and grafting. Seed propagation is used in the cultivation of wild roses, which well pass on their basic decorative qualities to their offspring, and rootstocks, as well as in breeding work when developing new varieties of roses.
Vegetative propagation of roses
Inoculating roses
The most common method of grafting roses is budding, i.e. grafting roses with an eye (one bud).
Growing rootstock. The quality of a grafted rose largely depends on the rootstock – rosehip. You can graft on almost any wild species, but the same variety of roses develops differently on different rootstocks. In our country, the canina rose is most widely used as a rootstock. This rootstock has good winter hardiness, a powerful branched root system, sufficient resistance to pests and diseases, has rapid growth and ease of reproduction, has a smooth and even root collar without thorns, easily detachable bark, is durable and has good compatibility with most varieties of roses.
Other wild rose hips can also be used as a rootstock, for example the rugosa rose, which produces abundant root shoots and has a good root collar, and the laksa rose (R. Laxa) – very winter-hardy and unpretentious.
The rootstock can be grown from rose hips, which are collected when they turn brown (late August – early September). The seeds are immediately cleared of pulp, washed, mixed with moistened sand and stored at 3-5 0 C until planting. Try not to dry the seeds, as after this they fall into deep dormancy. Seeds are sown in October before the soil freezes or at the end of April in fertile soil to a depth of 3-4 cm, 4-5 g per 1 linear meter of furrow. After sowing, the soil is mulched (with wet sawdust, humus).
When two true leaves appear on the seedlings, they are planted in very loose fertile soil (the distance between seedlings is 5 cm, between rows – 10-15 cm), while pinching out the root system. After planting, the seedlings are watered (including with a medium solution of potassium permanganate) and mulched to cover the root collar.
During the season, the seedlings are looked after, especially great attention is paid to fertilizing (a weak solution of mullein) and treatment against diseases. In autumn, annual seedlings are dug up and sorted. In unfavorable years, seedlings grow poorly and can be left for another year. For planting for grafting next year, seedlings with a straight root collar, at least 4-5 mm thick and a well-branched root system are selected. The remaining seedlings are grown for another year. Thus, from the moment of collecting seeds to obtaining a standard rosehip seedling, 3-4 years pass.
In central Russia, summer budding is best carried out from July 15 to August 15. At this time, there is intense downward sap flow and the bark lags well behind the wood. If the rose hips have grown greatly and this interferes with budding, then some of the branches can be cut out. For better separation of the bark during budding, the rootstock is well watered a week before.
It is better to harvest cuttings immediately before budding, choosing mature shoots with formed buds (eyes). A mature shoot is one in which the thorns are well separated. Leaves are removed from cut shoots, leaving petioles.
Budding carried out in the root neck of the rootstock. The root collar is loosened, wiped with a cloth until the bark is a light tone, and a T-shaped cut is made on it with a sharp budding knife. Then the peephole is cut off with a shield of about 2 cm (peephole in the middle), with a small part of the wood or without it. Using a bone on the budding knife, the bark is pulled apart in a T-shaped incision and the peephole is inserted there, holding it by the remainder of the leaf petiole. If necessary, the upper part of the shield is trimmed so that it fits more tightly into the cut. Then tie it with plastic wrap or special tape. The binding should be made as tight as possible, leaving only the eyelet unwrapped. The grafted rose hips are planted with earth. If after 3-4 weeks the leaf petiole under the grafted bud dries up and falls off, then the graft has taken root.
At the end of April, the plants are unearthed by cutting the rootstock 0,5 cm above the grafted eye, the binding is removed and the cut is covered with garden varnish, then the plants are lightly earthed up again.
Reproduction of standard roses. Roses can be formed not only in the form of bushes, but also in the form of low “trees”, with a trunk of one height or another. Strong annual rosehip seedlings are planted in a well-fertilized area. By the autumn of the third, and sometimes even the fourth year, renewal shoots grow 1,5-2 m high with a trunk diameter of more than 1 cm. The appearance of such shoots is facilitated by the spring cutting of part of last year’s renewal shoots. On each bush, choose one tallest and straightest shoot – best of all, the one that appears in the spring and manages to become lignified by autumn. It will become the standard rootstock. The remaining shoots are cut out at the very root collar. In the fall, the finished rootstock can be dug up, buried horizontally and covered with spruce branches for the winter. If the standard rootstock has been dug up, it is planted in the spring and grafted in the same time frame as bush roses – from mid-July to mid-August.
Budding is carried out on the trunk in the usual way, at a distance of 40-50 cm from the top. One-year shoots cannot be budding too high, because their upper part contains a lot of moisture and the rootstock does not grow together with the scion. Two eyes are inserted into the T-shaped incision from opposite sides at a distance of 2-3 cm from one another. Double grafting promotes the formation of a lush crown. You should not plant more than two buds, as the third bud will not develop well. The survival rate of standard rootstock is higher than that of bush rootstock.
Green cuttings of roses
The simplest way to propagate roses, accessible to everyone, is cuttings propagation.
In open ground, the best time for cuttings occurs at the end of June and continues until the end of July.
Annual semi-lignified shoots, flowering or “blind” (without flowers), are used as cuttings. Young herbaceous, “fatty” (fleshy and immature, often red) and highly lignified shoots are not suitable. For cuttings, the lower cut is made obliquely under the bud, at an angle of 45 0, and the upper cut is made straight, 0,5-0,7 cm above the bud. The cutting size is 5-8 cm, usually with one internode. In smaller roses, two or three internodes are allowed. To reduce evaporation, remove the bottom leaf, leaving the petiole and half of the top leaf.
For planting cuttings, you can use a different substrate: a light soil mixture (turf: leaf: sand – 2:2:1) with the addition of clean river sand on the top; a mixture of sand and peat (1:1), perlite, etc. Before planting, the substrate is moistened. The lower bud of the cutting is buried into the upper layer of the substrate obliquely at an angle of 45 0. Planting depth (deepening of the lower bud) is 1,5-2 cm. The earth around the cutting is compacted. After planting, it is sprayed with water and covered with film, shaded if necessary. If several cuttings are planted, the distance between them is 3-5 cm.
Optimal conditions for rooting cuttings are air temperature 22-25 0 C, humidity 80-90% and indirect sunlight. For the first two weeks, humidity is maintained by frequent spraying. With the beginning of the appearance of young growth in the cuttings, the number of sprayings is reduced and aired more often, accustoming the plants to dry air. Such rooted cuttings are left for the winter in the basement or in a room with low temperatures, and in the spring they are planted for growing.
Propagation of roses by dividing the bush,
root shoots, layering
Reproduction of roses bush division applies to self-rooted roses. It is used when propagating park roses. Each part of the divided bush should have a share of roots and one or more shoots.
Root offspring They propagate roses, which easily produce shoots in the form of underground stems. Aboveground stems are formed from the accessory buds of these stems. They extend quite far from the main bush in the form of straight shoots. The first time after emerging from the ground, the offspring does not have its own roots, and receives all its nutrition from the mother plant. In autumn or spring, root shoots are cut off along with part of the mother root, shortening the above-ground part by half.
Layers You can propagate small-flowered climbing roses and some ground cover roses. To do this, strong annual shoots are laid out in grooves 15-20 cm deep. On the underside of the shoot, shallow cuts are made in the bark in several places (under the bud), which stimulates the formation of roots, and they are covered with loose nutritious soil. Layers are laid as early as possible in the spring. Under favorable conditions, by the autumn of the same year they have time to take root well. The following spring, the cuttings are dug up and planted for growing.
