In my travels various rose growers have mentioned to me that yellow roses tend to have lower strike rates when budded and also when propagated as own root cuttings.
Fact or fiction?
In my experience, I do have a hard time rooting most yellows. Not all- but most.
Hi George,
Autin’s Teasing Georgia, an apricot, has rooted readily for me. I rooted several Graham Thomas cutting, another Austin yellow about seven years ago without any problems. These were both Austins. Also Danae, a yellow hybrid musk, and Day Break, another yellow hybrid musk rooted readily. These were done about 5 years ago. Baby Love also were cuttings that rooted well ( have since succumbed to fungal diseases). Breeze Hill, a Van Fleet apricot pink climber also.
I haven’t tried Bucks, Floribundas, or HTs yet. These might be where the difficulty lies. Just recently acquired some yellow HTs and Floribundas so time will tell. Most are budded on Dr. Huey so want to try some own roots on them.
Try it; nothing to lose!!!
Jim
Hi Jim, I thought Baby Love was pretty immune to fungus problems?
Warren.
Arguably, Graham Thomas is part Hybrid Musk as well (coming from Iceberg). It’s not the HM derived yellows that I’ve had problems with either, it is the HT types- and not impossible, just more difficult than ‘normal’ (but this is also with my “primitive” rooting technique).
I have found most modern yellows to be very easy to propagate. The yellow species are another matter.
I understand that the closer a yellow is to R. foetida, the harder it is to root. I think that is where the saying originated.
Thanks all for your replies!
OK… the various people that have given me the yellow = difficult propagation scenrio were definitely talking about non-species (modern) yellow roses.
One source of this information was an experienced rose budder (commercial)…he was the one that mentioned that his strike rate with budding yellow moderns was definitely less successful than that for other colors (in my country just about every darned rose destined for commerce is budded!!!). That conversation was about ten years ago, but even so I distinctly recall he equated this observation about budding strike rates with the color yellow, not any particular yellow (modern) varietal. At the time I did find this observation a bit weird, and I still do, but there ya go!!!
The sources that mentioned having particular trouble with rooting cuttings of their modern yellows were ordinary gardeners who had much better successes with alternative colors. Perhaps they jsut had a difficult modern yellow varietal to work with.
o_O
Some of the old Pernetiana yellows were more difficult to root than others, even other colors from the same periods. But, they also tended to be weaker growers with more foliage issues. Kim
Warren,
Baby Love in its first years in the USA was considered ironclad against fungus diseases. Then about 8 years ago,I heard the first trickle of comments that people were finding it blackspotted. The two I rooted were lovely, healthy, and vigorous for about 4 years. Then they got blackspot and went rapidly downhill. One has died and the other is a 6inch skinny cane. Am thinking of potting it up and having to spray if necessary.
I think Baby Love is the classical example of vertical resistance. No fungus touched it until the right blackspot strain made contact with it and the key fit the lock perfectly. Apparently its horizontal resistance is negligible. I think some of its progeny combined with good horizontal resistance roses do very well.
Maybe Australia hasn’t been “blessed” yet. Let’s hope you stay that way, LOL.
George,
Kim kindly sent me a bunch of cuttings including 1-72-1, the yellow mini climber and Rise-n-Shine’s sister. I had about 6 cuttings of it and two rooted under the worst possible conditions ( preparing to move, too little time to do it properly, heat approaching 100 degree days and 85 degree nights, etc.) I think you just have to try it; nothing to lose.
Jim
George,
I have not experienced any problems rooting yellow roses (miniature, floribunda’s, or HT’ss)compared to any other color. Also, I have budded some HT’s Oregold) and they did not seem any more difficult to bud than other colors
I’ve been trying to get two yellows to root for years with no success at all so far, and I’ve probably struck a hundred cuttings of each. Graceland and Golden Zest, both yellow, both seem to have other ideas. I just can’t get them going, and I can get most other modern roses going with some perseverance. Have never tried to root a species rose.
Hi all, thanks again for the great replies. Your combined input has been great!!
I am not myself aiming to propagate any modern yellows at this point in time, it is just a general question that has been lingering in the back of my mind since hearing these anecdotes from rose folk here and there over time.
It is interesting stuff.
More generally, I wonder what it is that makes some roses so danged difficult to root!! I bet it is not a simple answer!!!
I don’t wonder about it, just keeping those with a root system able to produce a good size bush. If they are clean, that’s better, if they have a good flower and display that’s even better. Few of my seedlins have all three but they do root in a misting set up compared to budded roses.
My take on it is those which are more difficult to root generally don’t make vigorous root systems in the first place. That, alone, makes them not worth breeding with IMO. Being able to root easily and grow well own root are two very important traits to me. Why would I want to infuse the line with something that inhibits them? Yellow is nice, but there are better choices for the color than those which have such extreme foliage, root system and vigor issues. Unless you’re trying to make another museum piece. Kim
It seems that some of the most vigorous spinosissima and foetida hybrids, museum pieces or not, are the most difficult to root cuttings of. Many of these are yellow. Some of these make suckers which can be dug and used to start new plants, but propagation by suckers (stolons) is not commercially practical on a large scale because the supply is inconsistent (it’s hard to predict how many suckers will form per year, and whether they will be well rooted), and having suckering plants on their own roots is undesirable for gardeners who don’t live in the coldest zones.
The percentage of cuttings that “strike” and the vigor of own-root growth are two criteria in the assessment of rose varieties. Some good rose varieties have not been continued in commerce simply because they were too difficult to propagate–they were difficult to root, or they were difficult to propagate by grafting.
Problems rooting may be due to the presence of a virus,
Or not. My experience has been the more likely a rose is to sucker, the less likely it is to root, period. I can’t think of a suckering species or OGR I’ve found “easy” to root, while all I have tried have been successfully propagated by transplanting suckers. It was a common enough occurrence that I early stopped trying to root them when propagating for the Huntington Sales, and simply potted suckers from The Study Plot. Kim
There may be something to that observation about roses that sucker.
And then there are those that root wherever they touch down, like that 5"-long piece (surely a museum piece . . .) of bracteata you sent me about 10 years ago, Kim. Anybody need bracteata which started as Kim’s private stock?
It really IS a wonderful rose and one which should be more widely used. Talk about “persistent”! Dead leaves root in fire! It THRIVES on Round Up. It isn’t humanly possible to excavate deeply enough to remove all of its (or any of its close hybrids’ roots) so someone yanking it out of the ground only inconveniences it a little while before it’s baaack! Kim