Growing roses from seed

Growing roses from seed is simple enough.  It’s most unlikely you will get a show stopper but this way of growing roses can be very rewarding and a good way of increasing your stock of roses.  This is the way to grow roses from seed.

How to grow roses from seed.

1. Choose two different rose varieties for parents.  One will be the seed parent and one will be the pollen parent.  What parents you choose is up to you depending on what kind of offspring characteristics you are looking for.
2. The seed parent acts as the female.  This will be fertilized to produce the seeds.  The pollen parent acts as the male providing the pollen to the female for fertilization.
3. Plant our two chosen roses for growing from seed into separate 9 inch pots.  Place in a cold frame or cold greenhouse in February.
4. Choose a bright day in late May or early June for the next step in growing roses from seed.  This is the pollination process.
5. Using the chosen seed parent gently and clearly remove all the petals from a half open flower.
6. Now remove all the antlers and then put a small clear plastic bag over the remains of the flower and gently tie it closed around the stem.  Small freezer bags are ideal for this.
7. The following day is pollination day.  On pollination day remove a flower from your chosen pollant parent rose.   Clearly remove all petals.
8. Remove the bag from the seed parent.  Now brush the antlers of the pollen parent off the stigmas of the seed parent.  This is transferring the pollen.  Replace the bag over the seed parent.
9. If you are intending to grow a lot of roses from seed it is a good idea to label them with details of the specific rose types used.
10. Leave the seed parent (bag) for a few weeks.  This gives the rose time to grow ‘hips’.  These hips are actually loaded with seeds.  It should be early autumn now and these hips should be full and ripe.
11. Now remove the hips and place them deep under compost in a pot.  Label the pot and leave outdoors for the winter.  Do not worry about frost.
12. You are now in February, bring in the hips.  Get a bowl of water and gently squeeze the seeds fro inside the hips into the water.  Some seeds will float, some will not.  You need the seeds that do not float.  These are the fertile seeds.
13. Using specially formulated compost for seeds and cuttings gently place the seeds a little under the surface of the compost.  As soon as the first true leaves appear move each one to a pot of its own.
14. Shortly afterwards some will produce blooms some will not.  This is the time for choosing which roses you want to continue growing.  If you want you can always narrow down your choice of roses in Autumn.  Continue growing as container grown roses until the following season.
15. Next season you have the choice of continuing to grow your roses as normal or to bud them onto rootstocks in July.

Growing roses from seeds seems more complicated than it is.  As with everything to do with growing roses it just needs a little planning and time.

You might not produce an award winning rose but certainly growing roses from seeds and having your very own type of rose is something special.

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