"Douglas" wrote in message
...

"Rodger Whitlock" wrote in message
...
gOn Tue, 6 Jul 2004 08:28:14 +0000 (UTC), Franz Heymann wrote:

The time for taking summer cuttings is approaching. This raises
the
perennial questions which bother me at this time of the year:

Is the shelf life of last year's purchase of "Strike" powder
long
enough for me to risk using it again this year?

I think I've read that the active ingredient decomposes fairly
quickly and that you should buy fresh powder annually. Do I
myself do this? No.

I've also read commments (perhaps here in urg) that for most
plants, rooting hormones are an irrelevancy, so the potency or
impotency of one's hormone powder is also irrelevant.

Still, I use the stuff just in case, but as time goes on my
methods become more and more primitive. Right now I've got rose
cuttings underway, powdered and dibbled directly into the soil
with a glass jar over them, just like grandma used to do.

******

They'll grow, - but the purists don't like them.

Hard luck on the purists. I have grown roses satisfactorily from
cuttings for years and years. My impression is that the trade uses
budding mainly because they can get a larger number of offspring from
one stock plant that way.

[snip]

Franz