Hybridizing Roses

[porshiepoo]

Has anyone had a go at hybridizing their own Rose?
I'm going to give it a go just for curiosities sake and wondered what experiences any of you guys had of it?

This should be an interesting and probably extremely frustrating project for me to attempt cos I can't even get a fuschia to take from cuttings! :eek: Supposedly it's one of the easiest plants to propagate from semi ripe cuttings but I've had about 30 goes and guess how many have wilted and died? 30![evil]

[gardeninginagale]

Hybridising roses? Wow, that's a big project.

All roses other than ramblers are grown on rootstocks. So you need to learn budding and grafting techniques. The most common rootstock is rugosa, which roots easily from hardwood cuttings. And indeed you can propagate many shrub roses, bred from rugosa, by the same method. But they won't be as vigorous or as healthy as those grafted on a parent rootstock.

Good luck, and please let me know how you get on.

Alec Cocker devoted his entire life to propagating roses, and (arguably) his best roses have come on the market after he died.

I guess that puts the timescale in perspective.