Rooting Rose Cuttings Using a Mini Greenhouse

By far this has been the most effective method for me to root my antique garden roses. What I have done essentially is made a mini greenhouse using a large, clear sweater box purchased from my local box store retailer. Then using old water bottles or actual small plant cups, I placed filled them with my 50/50 peat and perlite mixture, then placed the prepared cuttings into the containers. After all the cuttings were prepared, they were then misted, the lid placed on top of the sweater box and finally under the florescent lights. The lights were placed on a simple trip timer to give the cuttings light for 16 hours every day. The cuttings were also misted at least once daily (except when I went on vacation). All this is inside my house upstairs where the temperatures is kept around 75 degrees F, since my Canadian hybridizer friend George Mander told me that I would achieve greater success with temperatures cloder to 70 degrees F.

I was able to fit 45 containers in the first batch that I started on July 2nd, 2007. To this date, almost 10 weeks later I have only lost 7 cuttings, with half those my fault. Of the remaining 38 cuttings, several have phenominal growth, and one is even budding! I honestly never expected flowers on these cuttings until next Spring, so this to me is just an added bonus.

The following are some pics of my mini greehouse rose propagation setup:

Empty water bottles waiting for new cuttings.	The mini rose propagation greenhouse under the lights.	New growth exhibited on the rose cuttings.
	New rose bud after only 10 weeks!