I mistakenly cut off the leavess to a rose cutting that I intended to root. The stem is still strong and healthy, but has no leaves....will it root anyway?
Judy, I'm not sure, but I think not. Leaves provide nutrients, and without leaves, the cutting may not get enough nutrients to set roots. Is is possible to get more cuttings of that rose? I usually take as many cuttings as I can, figuring the odds are not all of them are going to put out roots (strike). I do take the leaves off the bottom few inches of the cutting, leaving something resembling a palm tree to be dipped in the rooting hormone and put into the rooting mixture.
Judy, I root my cuttings in water (a.k.a. "the lazy way" ), and always take off all the leaves. If I don't, they tend die off anyway during the rooting process.
Thanks to both of you for your input. You both know more about rooting roses than I do. I am going to leave them in the water until one of us die or the stems get roots! I can get any geranium to grow by just sticking it in the ground. However, I am really new to this rose rooting... but about 3 years ago, I heard you could get a rose to grow from cuttings. so, I got a clipping from my friends rose bush and cannot remember how I got it ro root, but today, the rose bush is finally full grown and filled with beautiful roses. This time, I have 3 healthy stems(7-10 inches each)...I have them in about 3 inches of sugar water (about 1 cup to 1 Tbls. sugar) I am determined to see if they will root, but as a back-up, I am going to try and get another clipping or 2 and leave a couple of leaves on each this time. I want to thank you both again for sharing your information...you will definitely be hearing from me again. To anyone interested, I have just found that by putting 2-4 tablespoons of sugar in the water with roses I have picked, they are lasting about 10 days to 2 weeks...in fact one of the 3 stems I am trying to root lasted exactly 3 weeks...I have no idea why this is but it is. Judy
