Lorrie Freeman, MG 1992

To root hardwood cuttings:

In the dormant season, it is very easy to root cuttings of your roses. Prepare a 5-gallon or larger container (with good drainage) by filling it about 2 inches with garden soil; then with construction-grade sand (large particles) fill up to 1 inch below the top of the container. Moisten well. With a stick, make 5 or 6 deep holes. Cut 10 to 12-inch pieces of the rose canes you want to propagate. Use firm wood from the middle of the cane, not the soft tops. Label the cut canes with the name of the variety; a loop of masking tape around the cane works well. Insert the cuttings into the deep holes, with at least three eyes under the sand; firm sand around cuttings. (Dipping the bottom of the cutting in a rooting hormone before planting may help.) Water well and keep moist constantly. Grow the new plants in sun or open shade. It is not necessary to cover with plastic. After three months, carefully lift each cutting out individually with a tablespoon. Plant or share extras.

Thoughts on Pruning Roses

First, have the correct tools and have them sharp: bypass clippers, lopers and a pruning saw. And protect yourself with thornproof gloves. Wear a long-sleeved jacket and strong pants like denim or material that won't snag. If doing climbers, especially, protect your eyes.

Keep in mind Austins have both modern and old garden rose 'blood', so follow local guidelines for both types as much as sensible. Also, if this is the first or second winter you're pruning, do no more than cut the spent bloom and it's one-year growth down 1/3 -- as well as cutting out dead wood, crossing canes (that will damage each other when windswept) and "frivolous" spindly and small, fussy stuff. If it's a first or second year rose that has grown out of all control (and some may do just that), you have to be more "ruthless."

If it is rather, an older plant, over 3-5 years, and developing many primary canes that have emerged from the base union (the "lump" that should be planted just above soil level -- in this area), you'd start to look for the older canes, ones that look white or grey, often having a meshy look to them -- and remove those completely, lopping or sawing them off almost flush (as with tree pruning) ... all the while trying to keep primary canes that are young (they produce more flowers), smooth, green (or reddish), straight, strong and well spaced away from others -- as much as possible. ("You have to work with what you got!") Cut the tops of these chosen canes down by 1/3, cutting at a 45-degree angle to an outer eye. Remove the center of any branching to no more than two secondary canes.

You want to "develop structure" in a plant that is at least 3 years old mainly by choosing these well-spaced primary canes. Of course, nothing is static in gardening, and your structure will be constantly renewed, using the best canes, creating a vase-shape as much as possible. Remove only about 1/3 of the plant during this dormant season. January and February are usually the best months, but November and December and even March can work -- depending on the weather and how much the plant has "gone dormant" ... which it doesn't really do in our area anyway; has "gone most dormant" would be more accurate.

Also, try to create a column of "nothingness" in the center of the plant, removing the leaves on the lowest 6-8 inches of the plant, so air can circulate under and up through the plant. This is the most important way you can aid your rose to resist fungal disease such as black spot and rust. Other ways are to choose naturally-disease- resistant roses, to give them enough circulation (considering also where you plant them) and to grow them well by giving them enough water and fertilizer during the entire growing season.

If you just can't resist growing favorite varieties that "invite" disease, another preventative is to spray them after you have finished pruning and after you have raked away all debris, with a dormant spray such as Volck oil, sun oil, etc., while it is still under 70 degrees - to avoid burning the foliage. This will smother the spores of many fungal diseases and the eggs of small, overwintering insects. Then, after they start leafing out, spray regularly with a completely nontoxic substance -- any brand of anti-transpirant, such as Cloud Cover, but in a more diluted form than the instructions recommend when moving plants -- use just a few tsp., up to 1/4 c. of anti-transpirant per gallon of water every two weeks or so. This will put a coating on your roses that will help those spores of pollen that spread fungal disease to just "roll off" the plant -- and remember, it's completely nontoxic!

Back to WHERE you plant roses. They should get about 8 hours of sunlight each day -- up to full sun, and they need good drainage too. It's hard to overwater a rose planted in the ground, unless its roots are sitting in water. And it needs to be where the air circulation flow is good -- not cut off by a building, wall, fence or thick plant material.

Winter pruning time is the ideal time to look for problems. Check for gall, characterized by a rough, corky growth usually on or near the bud union. Gall can grow up to size of a football, although I've only seen it to the size of a softball. Remove it, often by using your pruning tools, sometimes a small spade, or sometimes by stepping on it -- but remember to sterilize anything that comes in contact with the gall (I like to use rubbing alcohol) -- and remember to dispose of it in a plastic or paper bag put into your garbage, not your compost pile. Expose the area where it grew to the sun and air, pulling back soil if necessary -- and you can apply Gall-ex to kill the bacteria. (Roses that seem to have no problem evident, but just will not grow correctly, can have root gall, with scores, even hundreds of these gall balls growing all along the roots; all must be carefully removed before replanting in that area.)

Look for holes going down the center of canes. If you have them, they are caused by borers -- small wasps that have "drilled" down the cane to lay their eggs. Cut down until you're below the damage and then put a few drops of white glue on the top of the cane (and all canes over 3/4") to avoid it happening again.

Other problems can be hollows formed, probably from damage from tools such as edgers and lawn mowers, even pruning tools carelessly used. Earwigs, ants, termites, etc. by the thousands can use this as a home and further undermine the plant. If the plant looks healthy despite such damage, just keep it cleaned out regularly and up above the soil/compost level, removing some soil if necessary.

Another problem to look for, unless you have "own-root" roses, are "suckers" -- canes growing from below the bud union (which is where the new variety was budded to the rootstock). This is the variety, such as 'Dr. Huey' or 'IXL' or R. multiflora, onto which your new 'Barbra Streisand' was budded -- and it will produce its own flower -- or sometimes not flower at all -- usually grow MUCH taller than 'Barbra Streisand' -- zapping her strength -- and have different leaf structure, often having 7 leaflets, rather than 5. It is very important to remove ALL of this (these) canes, INCLUDING THE BLIND EYES. If you just cut it off near the base, it will grow from the blind eyes (on each side of the old cane) and you will then have two suckers. So, attack this plague by removing soil to expose its source, then cut the cane to about 6 inches or less -- enough to get hold of the sucker with a strong pair of pliers with which you will endeavor to "work it loose" and RIP OFF the whole cane ALONG WITH the blind eyes on either side. Leave the area exposed to sun and air (to avoid gall forming in the damaged spot) for a few days and then refill with clean soil. I once had a huge mass of suckers growing from BELOW a well-established 'King's Ransom' that I just couldn't reach, so I dug up the whole plant during dormant season, used a chain saw (really) to cut off that whole side of the plant, cutting right through the bud union, disposed of the side with the suckers, replanted the rest, and it still is doing very well, thank you.

You may want to consider moving roses still, while it is still chilly most of the time, if they are in the wrong spot. Sometimes they may get enough sun, but still be under the outer canopy of a tree or shrub that attracts aphids. This can cause honeydew drip onto the roses, which then get mildewed, then they repeat the process, attracting the ants that spur the aphids to make more honeydew, etc., etc. It can be a huge mess.

A month or two after pruning, get a pair of very heavy thornproof gloves and go back down that "column" you created in the center of your roses, knocking off all the little growths of several inches that have developed, so that "jungle of growth" doesn't redevelop in the center of the plant, inviting disease. This is sometimes called "thumb pruning."

And dormant time is the best time to look over your landscape and decide on changes and improvements, while the "bare bones" of your garden are evident.

Growing roses can be "easy care"; I'm giving you worse-case scenarios when describing these problems to look out for. Please don't be discouraged from rose growing; they are survivors, have a LONG bloom period, can be disease-resistant when chosen carefully, can be beautiful, voluptous, perky and sweet, cute or elegant, have delicious scents and be VERY rewarding to grow. There are reasons it has been the Queen of Flowers for so many centuries.

Good luck and Happy Rose Growing.