Growing roses from seed

[Miranda]

A friend had a rose named for a family member and was sent some seeds. She is not a gardener and has asked me to start them for her. I'm happy to give it a go, but have never grown roses from seed - what's more, there are only six seeds in the packet.

Does anyone have any special methods or tips to offer on growing roses from seed? Special potting mixes, stratify or not, light levels, that sort of thing. I'd love to hear your ideas.

Thanks!

[Paul Narramore]

Miranda

When I was in the US last year, I was in the alpine town of Uray up in the Rockies and found a couple of stunning bi-colour roses, the petals were red on one surface and yellow underneath. I took a couple of hips and when I got back here, decided to try to cultivate them. Incidentally the rose was a very early one Rosa foetida 'Bicolor' Austrian Copper, which dates from the 12th Century.

I cut open the hips and laid the seeds on tissue paper on a sunny window sill. Once they'd dried I put the seeds into a plastic bag with a small amount of damp compost and put the bag in the back of the fridge for a month.

I later removed the bag and placed the compost in a shallow seed tray. After a few weeks, the tiny seedlings appeared. Once they were sizable, I transplanted each one into seed modules. They slowly grew during the spring and summer until a moment of stupidity caused me to water them with some liquid feed. I'd been feeding other plants and had some left over in the watering can. This promptly scorched the leaves and killed off some of the weaker seedlings.

They are now back on the greenhouse in 3" pots and about 3" high, and I'm probably down to about ten seedlings. Mildew seems a constant problem so I guess I'd better have a go at spraying them.

NOTE - Actually, re-reading this, I'm talking cobblers. The Austrian Copper is now an attractive bush about 3ft tall. The second attempt at cultivating was with Rosa rugosa, a hip I took from a stunning red version seen at the World Garden at Lullingstone.

[Miranda]

Thanks, Paul. I thought I remembere that it was you who tried roses from seed.

The seed was already cleaned and packed in a sealed envelope. Do you think it still needs chilling? I've been looking about and there's a lot of conflicting information - some say to sow and keep the pot in a cold frame over winter, while others say to sow and keep the seeds at 15c. Germination time is said to be anything from two weeks to 12 months.

For the mildew issue, I saw a water-hydrogen peroxide mix being used for watering. Any thoughts on that?

[Paul Narramore]

Chilling for a month in the fridge simulates a winter for the seeds. I've never tried other methods so cannot comment on them, but the fridge method worked for me.

As for the spray, I rarely use any spray so have no thoughts on it. Since HP is household bleach (?) what ratio of water to HP would you recommend? (OK, I could look this up for myself but since we are chatting.......and in fifteen minutes Mrs N and I are off to watch 'Atonement' at the movies, evening performance, of course ;-)

[Miranda]

What I read was to use one measuring cup of water to one tablespoon of HP. There is some more on that method here:
http://faq.gardenweb.com/faq/lists/rosespro/2003054310016173.html

I'll try the fridge method and see what happens. Hope it works! I'd hate to go back to my friend and have to tell her that none of the seeds had germinated.

Was the film any good?

[Paul Narramore]

Yes, the film was very good but I'd say it was a woman's film. It was adapted from an Ian McEwan novel and told the story of a WW2 romance which was blighted by the heroine's younger sister. Beautifully filmed though. My wife enjoyed it a bit more than me though. Tuesday night (or rather evening) = two tickets for the price of one.:)

[Miranda]

'A woman's film' - those are what I call PMT films ;)

With the rose seeds, I've decided to start two off in pots in an unheated greenhouse, two in pots outside and two in the fridge. I'll report back on what happens.

Something that disturbed me slightly was that the blurb that came with the seeds kept saying words along the lines of 'If it doesn't work, it's your own fault'. I don't like that attitude.

[Paul Narramore]

That does seem odd, doesn't it? Last May I obtained some Echium wildpretii from Abbotsbury Gardens, and followed the sowing instructions to the letter. Nothing has happened, so I must get back in contact with them to get some more seeds.........and better advice.

I bought a few bunches of wallflower ('Ruby Red') yesterday so will shortly be grubbing up our disappointing Busy Lizies. They were far too small and dwarfed by the dahlias, in the circular beds. Mind you our wall flowres last year were very disappointed even though I'd got them from our usual supplier, so this time I've gone to a local nursery instead.

I have a large box of Wicke's Weed, Feed & Moss Killer to apply to the lawn which is riddled with weeds and moss.

It's also time to prune the Fremontodendron, a nasty job as the rust-colour pollen is extremely irritating and get's on the chest. I might even dust off the shredder to see if that's as bad as it always was.

My 'best' lawnmower, a Honda HR194 19" rotary mower broke it's handle last week. I'd bought it a few years ago through eBay and with it's heavy steel roller, it's a super machine. A previous owner had poorly welded the handle but it's since failed. I've located a supplier, and for this piece of bent steel tube, it's about £65 plus £25 for a new blade. In fact it has always been far too heavy for my customer's gardens, as I'd need hump it into the back of the van. However it is a lovely old machine which is power driven, and cuts well.