Rose cuttings - how will I know when they've taken?

Strange story, but my house is the childhood home of my wife's friend who now lives over the road. Out the front is a well established climbing rose that her dad (now deceased) planted.

Last year, I made two attempts at propagating the rose, so that wife's friend could have one in her garden. She sees it as a living connection to her dad.

One is just a regular cutting, which sat in water for a couple of weeks before going into a container of compost. For the other, I carefully pulled down one of the stems, bent it through 90 degrees, and pinned it into another pot of soil, such that the parent plant is still providing life support so to speak until it (hopefully) roots.

I did both of these at the back end of summer. Both are showing growth.

What I'm wondering is, firstly, in the case of the layered one, how will I know when it is safe to sever the connection to the main plant?

Also, for the one that is just a regular cutting, how will I now whether the growth its showing is a sign that it has developed good roots, or if it is just running off the energy stored in the wood of the cutting?

I guess what I'm really wondering, is what I should do next, and when, in order to ensure the best possible chance that one of the cuttings will develop into a healthy new rose bush?

 

Thanks Woo.

 

It might be running on stored energy, but if/when you can see roots through the drainage holes at the base of the pot then I reckon you have a winner

 

The thing is, I'll never see that, because when I planted it up I didn't hold out much hope for it, so rather than giving it its own pot, I just shoved it in a hanging basket that is currently unoccupied after the flowers that were in it had finished.

 

What a good idea. If it leafs up and grows away strongly then its fine. Bit of a toss up when you pot it on - perhaps when you need to plant up the hanging basket for this season?

 

I've just been and checked on the cutting in the hanging basket. Early indications seem positive. It has about the same rate of new growth as the 'parent' plant does, and I just very gently pulled it, and a significant area of the compost moved with it, suggesting that somehow, it is holding onto it, and there is only one way it could be doing that.

I'm tempted to relocate it to a large pot today, and then nurture it for a couple more weeks before giving it to its intended recipient. Any thoughts?

 

It does sound as if it's rooted Clueless. I'd try digging around it gently just to see if the roots are definitely there. If you decide to pot it on I'd give it another month to establish itself before passing it to it's new owner. It would also probably be best to leave it in a pot throughout this years growing season to let it mature and plant it out, if that is the intention, during it's dormant period this coming winter.

 

I grow cuttings in pots made of the bottom half of a clear pop bottle. If you put them against the sides you can see when the roots start to grow.

Alternatively, if you pull slightly on the cutting you can tell whether there are roots anchoring it or whether it just slides right out.