| Trudy Sappington, September 24, 2004
Can I start sea roses from rose hips??
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| 9/24/04 A sea rose (Rosa Rugosa) is a species roses, and as such, will reproduce true to form from rose hips. I personally do not have experience growing roses from hips but know that they need a process to grow (chilling, etc.). I am pasting in the url from the American Rose Society that tells how to do this. http://www.ars.org/explore.cfm/propagation/growing Jerry Cinnamon
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| 9/29/04 Yes, Trudy, you can start the rugosa roses from seeds. Open the ripe hip and seperate the seeds, wash them real good by rubbing them against a strainer, such as a metal mesh tea strainer, you have to get the coating off them that prevents sprouting. Wash them real good. Then soak them a day in peroxide. Strain them again, and rub them in the strainer again, rinsing them well. Now place them on a damp paper towel, or coffee filter, place in a ziplock baggie and put them in the refrigerator. After a month, start taking them out and checking for sprouts once a week, then when they start sprouting, check them every 3rd day or so. You will see a little white root emerging from the seed. Carefully take the sprouted seed and place it in a growing mix such as ProMix, with the root down into the mix, do not use potting soil, you need a peat type mix with vermiculite or perlite in it. Leave the top of the seed just showing in the mix. I like to use a clear plastic glass with holes in the bottom (you can do this by heating a round metal object and just pressing it into the bottom of the glass), the reason I like to use glasses, is you can see the roots developing and can tell when you need to repot them easily. You will need to put the glass(es) in a enclosure such as a baggie, or anything with a clear dome top, you are making a little "greenhouse". Keep it in your greenhouse till your plant has a couple of sets of leaves, then expose it to the air gradually, finally leaving it out in the air and light. You will not want to put it in full sun at first, you will burn the leaves. You can also use flouressent lights( use a plant light, or one cool tube and one warm one) that are just a few inches from the plant, just watch them to be sure they are not drying out. You will have to raise the light as the plant grows. Go on from there as you would for any plant. Do not spray rugosas with any kind of pesticide or insecticide, they do resent that, and will even die in some instances. You can spray them with water, they will like that, and it will keep the spider mites at bay also. You can start fertilizing your baby roses when they have a couple of sets of leaves with a diluted fertilizer every couple of weeks while it is starting out. Then fertilize as you would your other roses when they are larger. Good luck, and enjoy propagating roses, it sure is fun. You do have to realize when you grow anything from seed, you take the chance of it not being a clone of the parent plant. Rugosas seem to come pretty true tho.
Joan Gotlibson |
