Bob Hobden wrote:
"Ian B" wrote
My neighbour pruned a very admirable rose a few weeks ago and gave
me some twigs as I'd said I liked it. I stuck three of them in the
ground with some compost and fertiliser and kept them damp. They are
all still green. One of them lost its leaves, but now it has new red
shoots appearing, so I presume it's still alive.

I'm just wondering what to do now; that is, should I let these shoots
develop or not- will it exhaust itself by trying to grow new canes or
something like that? Is there any particular time it will be
established enough to transplant to a location I want it in? Is
there a particular time of year to do so?

I've had them appear to grow but obviously no roots did as they
eventually died the following year. However if you can gets roots to
grow they will be fine but best not to let them freeze this coming
winter and if they grow away well next year plant them out. We have a
nice yellow rose bush that came from a bunch of roses given to Sue by
a friend, 5 cuttings and one rooted properly and grew but then I did
just shove them in the garden.

This sort of ties in with what I'm worried about; whether the cutting
attempting to grow before it has rooted properly might be too much for it.
I'm presuming that something is keeping it alive, since it's still green
(they all are) and there are shoots on it.


Ian