Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Propagation-Rose hips, layering, cuttings, etc

If you are new to my blog, you may want to know that I am a beginner.  So do take what I am saying is the right way...I could be very well wrong.    As a matter of fact, my garden is now one year old.  The first plants I planted were Encore Azaleas.  The picture I took was on January 20, 2012..so I suppose it's my garden's birthday.  

It was raining today, so I thought what a good day to get some seeds started.  I had some rose hips (some I conditioned) that I wanted to plant....for the record I may be doing a fool's errand because they didn't look mature...but what they hey!  Get my money back, right?

My attempts at propagation in the past were miserable failures.  I did manage to get one rose seed to grow in a tiny pot.  I made a horrible mistake.  I put it and other seeds I attempted to sow in pots in the rain...BIG MISTAKE.  They all died.  I don't if it was the pelting rain or the fact that the potting soil formed a crust but I won't make that mistake again.

The most successful I have been at propagation was what is called the layering method.  This is where you scab a low growing branch....shred the out side of the branch...but some root hormone on it, put some soil underneath, and put a rock on top of it.  This worked really well for me.  I managed to propagate a hydrangea and an azalea this way.  There is, also, something called air layering but I have yet to try that one.


I got this off the web that is pretty good...to see the link it's from HydrangeasHydrangeas.com.  I am new to blogging but I do want to give credit etc for other people stuff 

In any event, below is today's escapades.

Here is one of my rose hips.  I had some and I began slicing it open to get the seeds out(which now I have debris under my nails that is very painful.)


After I took out the seeds, I put them in a bowl.  Evidently you can tell the viable seeds from non-viable by which ones float.  Floating seeds are good, non-floating probably not so good.  No matter, I planted them all anyway.



The other propagation method I have used is cuttings.  These are bougainvillea cuttings.  


These are the plats I plan on putting the rose seeds in.
I am putting in peat moss.  The tray underneath on the right.  I plan on putting on black weed blocker and laying out peat moss.  Now, I did not label where these rose hips came from.  I am sure that I will regret that in the future but what's the point of being a beginner if I can't be lazy and impatient :)

Sorry for the blurriness.  Someone gave me some roses....I thought to give me cuttings.  I quickly cut off the rose and the bottom leaving a couple of leaves.  I moistened the bottom of cutting and I put rooting hormone on the bottom and I spray them often to keep them moist.  This was done a couple of months ago and considering the leaves are still green so I think it's rooted...  Makes me consider going to the store and going to the florist department find a rose that I love and make a cutting out of it.  There is a thought.....   
The root hormone is pretty cheap...
Sometimes I just stuck a branch in the ground that accidentally broke off and it worked.  But the root hormone is suggested.
The greenhouse is looking less cluttered now that the bare roots are in the ground.


On the way to the greenhouse with the bowl above some of the seeds splashed  out of the bowl :(  So I knew I had more rose hips so I went out to cut them.  When I brought them back I thought wow...I don't want to peel all of those.
So what do I do?  Put them in a blender!  Sounds crazy right?  Well, this is what I read about that.  This link is very informative.  Texas A & M link.





So I put them in the blender...


Now I have this mush....  I poured water in it and now it's soaking....don't think I am not tempted  to put the whole thing in a plat and call it compost...... so we will see how this goes....

Back on the home front, (or the back yard) I played with the trial landscaper program.  I use the free version but I may break down and buy the complete version  My mother wanted to see the lorapetelum so I wanted to post this.



4 comments:

Sharrieboberry said...

Very interesting! I look forward to seeing the continuing saga of the rose hips/seeds. :)

Cerberus German shepherds said...

I did NOT want to hunt through the paste I essentially made. So I laid down a layer of peat moss in a pallet, put the mush I had in the center and then a layer of perlite.....not sure if anything will come of it but I bet something will. They are in a greenhouse which can keep pretty warm and there is full spectrum lighting, I suspect I will get at least one. As I am typing this my hands are covered in bandages trying to assemble the blender.. the ninja blades could be used as weapons! My son looked at my hands, (especially my nails) after I had been gardening all day and there was dirt under them...he was "ewwww" I smiled and thought isn't that the hallmark of someone who gardens???

HolleyGarden said...

Good luck with your seeds! I hope you get lots of roses out of them. That landscaper program looks pretty interesting. I'm not very computer literate, but I think I just may play around a little with that! Thanks for the link.

Cerberus German shepherds said...

I am still using the trial version, I may break down and buy the real version. It does have more plants in it, so that I don't have to make my own and it shows you what will happen to your garden as it grows.