You may want to learn how to grow roses but perhaps can’t afford to get them from a garden center. Or maybe you don’t want to waste time and money on rose bushes from such a source until you know for sure you have the right kind of green thumb. One way of finding out what color your thumb is may be by trying to grow a rose bush from a cutting. Do you have a friend or acquaintance with a rose garden? They might be willing to give you a few cuttings, so you can try the experiment.

You’ll have to pick your roses carefully, though, because not all types of roses grow well from cuttings. It’s likely some expert gardeners have managed to do it even with the difficult varieties, like hybrid teas. But if you still don’t know much about how to grow roses, or you’re not very experienced, then you will find varieties that simply will not grow by this method. Of course do some research to get specifics, but you can be fairly confident trying this with varieties like floribundas or miniatures.

You ought to do rose pruning in the first part of spring, taking three or four six-inch stems (or three inch stems for miniatures). Cut them on a slight diagonal, in the morning before the stresses of the day.

In the past, people knew how to grow roses with cuttings protected by Mason jars, and the practice still does the trick. So as soon as you have your cuttings, remove the lower leaves, with just a few at the top, and immerse the stems into a rooting powder. Then position them either into your garden soil or into containers of potting soil. At this point, place a Mason jar over each stem and water from time to time during the next few weeks.

When teaching people how to grow roses via cuttings, some recommend using containers with heating pads under them to encourage root development, though that may not be necessary if you’ve used rooting powder. In milder climates you should be able to grow the roses right outside, and may not even need Mason jars. Either way, it should take one or two months for the cuttings to become rooted. Once that has happened, and with continued research and rose care, you should be able to start creating a rose garden. You may discover your green thumb, and realize that this method of rose propagation is something you want to continue exploring.

Rose gardening can definitely be challenging to those that are not blessed with a green thumb. But anyone can grow rose gardens if they have the right tools and choose the right type of roses for their environment.

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Rose bushes have long been prized in flower gardens around the world both for their beautiful fragrances as well as their gorgeous blooms.Gardening roses has traditionally taken a tender touch, as roses have typically been knows to be finicky plants, tricky to get to grow and bloom.  There is a push in our health conscious world today toward organic rose gardening, using all natural products on the roses, including the removal of insects that damage the plants.

One thing to keep in mind while gardening roses is that before roses were ‘discovered’ by human beings and cultivated in gardens, rose bushes grew quite well on their own with no tending at all, thus proving that these plants are often hardier than we give them credit for.

Tips for Gardening

If the rose gardener is new to the task, it is a good idea to choose a hardier version of rose bush, depending on the climate where they will be grown.  For instance, in a hot climate, tea roses could be a good choice, but would not survive well at all if the climate is colder.  Explorer roses however would do quite nicely in a cold climate, so the choice of rose for the particular climate is key.

This is sometimes one of the hardest decisions for new rose gardeners, since many of them have in mind the specific type of rose that they are determined to grow in their garden just like they have dreamed of doing for years.However, this is a set up for disaster, since roses are pre-determined for certain climates, unless the person is gardening roses in a green house where it is moderate temperature at all times.

Another tip for gardening roses is to plant the garden in full sunlight.The only exception to this is if it is already a very hot climate where the roses will need a slight break from the sun in the afternoon.In addition, rose bushes do not usually like to grow near to each other, so there needs to be a decent amount of space between bushes so there is air circulation between them.

Some rose gardeners think about roses as being almost human, with temperaments of their own.As such, they will talk to the plants as they move among them, although there is not scientific evidence to back up the though that this helps them to grow.One thing that does help in rose gardening is to water the roots of the plant.Even though it seems that watering the entire plant would simulate rain and produce a better result, watering the roots gives more water to the plant, allowing it to drink deeply.

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Think about this for a moment. Would you prefer to put your nose in rose or a stink weed? I would imagine you chose the rose, why is that?

Personally I don’t like stinky plants so I gravitate to those that have more pleasant smells. I will even put the nice smelling ones in my house.

It’s great to walk past a garden and get a whiff of fragrant flowers. It kind of makes it worth stopping long enough to smell the roses as they say. But what would life for flowers be without the fragrance.

The same thing applies to

Now go and ask 10 people what smell they like the most and you may find most of them have a different answer. Why? Because we are all have preferences. The same thing takes place in nature, certain insects, birds and bugs had a preference and when they smell what they like they head on over.

The great thing about the variety of smellers in nature is that they require a certain smell to attract them so we have quite a variety of plants.

Once you understand which flowers attract which insect or bird you can grow them and attract butterflies, hummingbirds and many others as well.

This year our plan is to plant a few flowers that will attract butterflies and hummingbirds. It would be great to get some pictures for this blog.

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