There is a climbing rose in Maine that I have long admired and have permission to take a cutting of when I am on vacation there. How do I propagate a cutting into a rose plant? Can it be done?
Many thanks!
Deb

I've started roses from cuttings, even had volunteers start themselves in the compost pile! Last summer we moved, and I took a 12 long piece off the neighbor's miniture rose. Stuck it in a pot of potting mix, kept it watered every day, and it greened right up. Another couple cuttings taken the same day did not survive the move. Stuck that little rose in the ground this past fall and it is now a bushy little 18" tall thing.

I'm not sure if a climbing rose will climb when taken from a cutting...my experience is to use the one year old growth (not this years soft shoots), snip any side branches to a couple inches long (leave a bud or two on each branchlet), stick it about 4 inches deep into soil (put the part that was attached to rest of the bush in the soil so the plant gets oriented properly). Have up to 8 inches above ground. Keep it moist. In about 8 weeks it should have enough roots to transplant, or keep it potted until the roots are more developed.

Last winter, while pruning the raggedy roses around the yard of my new house I tried some cuttings again. Most did not make it (I stuck them directly in the ground this time, and this is a hot, dry climate). However, one cutting from a climbing rose is now a measley 8 inches tall (it was a very stubby little cutting and I buried the entire thing about 3 inches deep, and watered it often all winter/spring). I don't think it did as well as the potted up cuttings.

Maybe roses will grow from cuttings taken all year. Climbing roses typically get pruned to leave 2 inch stubs sticking out all along the length of each cane. This time of year those canes send out new growth from each of those cut off branches. Perhaps cutting one whole side branch, then trimming it shorter into 12 inch pieces would work, using the couple sections that are oldest...but I don't know if they will be climbers...(but do take more than one little piece, in case one makes it but another doesn't. The rose certainly won't mind losing a branch).

Do you amend the soil with anything? Use rooting hormone on the woody rose cutting?
Thanks again! I'm so excited! I should take 4 or so for insurance, hum?
Deb

You can start just about any plant from cuttings as long as you take the cuttings at the right time. I have started a climber and bush rose from cuttings. The climber was a Lady Banks and the cutting-grown plants are climbing just fine. Stick cuttings about 3-4 inches long with several leaves into moist potting soil. Use rooting hormone if you like, but it isn't necessary. I start my cuttings in the 6 packs that flowers come in and place the 6 packs in plastic shopping bags. Open the bags once in a while and keep the soil moist but not soggy. Your roses should root in about 6 weeks.

My method of Rose Propogation:
take cuttings from a stem ending with a spent flower
go down at least past 2 full sets of 5 leaves strip off
the leaves so that you have 2 or 3 basal breaks on the
bottom. Soak them in a homemade rooting hormone( cut a
couple cups of willow branches into about 1-2 inch peices and boil them in a gallon of water and then
strain the water and let it cool ( it will keep all
season)... soak cuttings overnight. cut off the spent
flower and make a pot of soil. take a broom handle and
push it down through the middle of the soil and fill
with coarse sand while holding the cutting in it(be sure some of the basal breaks are in the sand ( this is
where the roots form).
next get the stuff moist and use a plastic soda bottle
over it to form a mini greenhouse.( you can loosen the
lid when it gets too hot.) place the planter in a bright, but not direct sun location and just wait it
out. you should start seeing leaves forming within a
month or two.. In late fall, i just put the pot and all
in the ground and mulch well . when next spring comes
around, I wait til i see good growth on the plant
and then either place it in the garden , or let it
grow in the pot(my preference) till it buds and then
transplant it. my success rate is about 75-85 percent
usingthis method

Just something to remember -- you're zone 6 so it might not matter -- roses purchased from a nursery probably have been grafted onto root stock hardier than the rose itself. Any cutting taken will not give you that hardy root. Something to ask the owner of said rose.

My own experience with woody cuttings of anything -- if it's stuck in the wet ground, it grows. Mind you, I have a big sign with an authoritative "GROW" chiselled into it, so my plants might be just a wee bit intimidated...

Thanks for all of the advice. I never did get to take the cuttings and try to root them. Maybe I'll get a chance to try next year. I did ask the owner of the house and roses what type they were. The roses had been planted by the owners grandmother some 50+ years ago, there had originally been 10 or so plants, 3 remain and flourish. She had no idea what they were, but to me they looked like Cecile Brunner. But, I am a novice in roses, so I could be wrong.
Foxglove