How to Plant Rose Bushes From Your Dead Roses
Roses conveniently make their own seeds, and growing rose bushes from the seed of dead rose flowers is the way to ensure a favorite rose variety is kept pure, alive and flourishing in the garden. The Maryland Rose Society recommends starting seeds indoors with plant lights to prevent damage to the plants and ensure the perfect amount of light per day. With this technique, the seeds are given the best chance to mature into a hardy, flowering rose bush. Does this Spark an idea?
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Things You'll Need
- Rose flowers
- Garden clippers
- Sharp knife
- Small opaque containers
- Labels
- Sterile planting medium
- Refrigerator or freezer
- Planting trays
- Plant lights
- Small plastic pots
- Water
- Liquid rose fertilizer
Instructions
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1
Select a rose to grow from seed and do not cut the roses off the selected bush. Instead, allow the flowers to mature, fade and die on the bush. Wait for the rose petals to drop off and the center of the flower, or the "hip," to swell and change color from green to orange or red, indicating that the seeds inside are ready for harvesting.
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2
Harvest the orange and red rose hips, and cut them open with a sharp knife to reveal the seeds.
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3
Place the seeds in a small, opaque container, and label it with the name of the rose that produced the seeds to remember what variety of rose the seeds produce. Add a small amount of sterile planting medium with the seeds.
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4
Store the seeds in the refrigerator for 30 to 45 days to ready them for germination.
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5
Remove the seeds from the refrigerator after 30 to 45 days, and plant each seed one-quarter-inch deep in sterile planting medium. Use a planting tray or plastic ice trays.
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Situate the planting trays under plant lights, one light per tray, and use a timer to turn the lights on and off so the lights are on for 16 hours and off for eight.
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7
Water just enough to keep the soil moist but not wet. Do not let it dry out completely.
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Wait until seedlings produce at least four leaves. Transplant each seedling into a slightly larger plastic pot. Keep the pots under the plant lights and mix two to three drops of liquid rose fertilizer in with the water for the next watering. A safe formula is 1 tsp. liquid fertilizer per quart of water.
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Plant the seedlings outside in an area with full morning sun after all chance of frost has passed.
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Tips & Warnings
Generally flowers that turn brown before the petals fall off have not produced viable seeds and should be pruned and thrown away.
