A Rooting Pot

I'm going to try to root some cuttings from some of the "own root" roses that grow in this area.  While I know that sticking a cutting in the ground and upending a quart canning jar over it has often been done, I can't quite convince my cluttered brain that I'm going to trust all of my precious cuttings to that hazardous method.  Too many rot-causing bacterial invaders waiting in the soil, too much risk of cooking the cuttings if the sun shines on them, and too much risk of the soil drying out if I forget to water the soil.

On this site, I found a clear explanation of how to assemble a cutting "rooter."  The resulting equipment has a name, the Forsythe pot.  Basically, it works by keeping the rooting medium at just the right moisture level to promote growth.  The watering means is a water-filled small clay pot buried almost to the rim in a larger growing-medium-filled plastic pot.  The cuttings are stuck into the growing medium and stay there only until they root.  I will use a good commercial potting soil mix--Stutzmans brand in this case--as the rooting medium, but vermiculite or milled sphagnum moss would also work.  This is kept moist by the moisture seeping through the walls of the unglazed clay pot.

There's one part of the recommendation on this site that I will confidently disregard, based on what I learned about rooting geranium cuttings when I worked at Stutzmans years ago.  I will  cut away any of the stem left below the lowest leaf node on my cutting.  This normally rots away anyway, and no roots will grow from it on most plants.

I will also do one thing in addition to what is recommended at the above site:  I will dip the trimmed end of the rose cutting in rooting hormone before I "stick" it.  My small container looks like a flour-y substance and has the unimaginative name of TakeRoot--a Schultz product I bought at Stutzmans.

Hiromi once had a neighbor in Japan who rooted roses from cuttings as a hobby.  From him he learned that it's always best to use a cutting taken from one of the plant's growing tips, but not the most tender tips.  Elsewhere I've heard that once a growing tip has produced a flower, it's at just the right "hardness" or maturity to work well for propagation.  Softer (newer and more tender) cuttings have a tendency to wilt quickly when severed from the main stem, and they die before they can grow any roots.

Hiromi also remembers that the hobbyist neighbor always stuck his cuttings directly into the ground during the rainy season.  I have a hunch that in most years this would work better in Japan than in Kansas.

Cuttings on roses should be about 7 inches long, and any leaves below the soil level should carefully be removed--without stripping off the outer layer of the stem below the leaf node.  Clipping or cutting them off works well, as does bending them away from the stem just until they snap, then pulling sharply upward till it separates cleanly from the stem.  If the stem is cut at a 45-degree angle, it's easy to penetrate the rooting medium.

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If anyone in the area has a rose bush that is known to have grown successfully here for many years, and if it has a habit and color I'm interested in, I'd love to hear from you.  I'd be happy to work out some kind of plant trade if that would please any donors, or I could help you create your own rooting pot if you'd like that.  I'd be especially pleased if you know the name of the rose you have--even if you're not positive that it's the "right" name.

Obviously, I am not interested in violating any plant patent laws in this venture.

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I was hoping to take cuttings from the Eutin that had survived for more than 55 years on the east side of the Elreka school building, but it fell victim to tidying up efforts before I could get it done.  I'm still mourning its passing, as I have heard others do.