An amateur starting with his first batch of roses is certainly not encouraged to take on growing roses from seed. After all, it is very challenging, what with all the tedious little tasks that you have to make sure are completed before you actually plant the rose seeds into the soil. Before we show you how it is to grow roses from the seed, you first have to understand the way Mother Nature has made your favorite flower and how they naturally produce seeds ready for planting.
A Lesson in Rose Anatomy
It is perhaps because of how sweet and delicate they seem to be that roses are more often associated with the feminine side of humans. In real biological sense, however, roses are considered bisexual. That's right. They are both male and female. Roses have what we call the stamen, the male reproductive organ in flowers that contains the filaments carrying the pollen. They also have an ovary, the female reproductive organ that houses the ovules. In the natural course of things, the pollen reaches the ovary and fertilizes the ovules, thus producing seeds that can be planted four months after you have first seen rose hips growing on your plants. After four months, the rose hips are ready for harvesting and you can start with growing roses from seed. That is, if you don't plan on hybridizing your roses and you are willing to wait that long.
How to Make New Rose Varieties
Okay, so you've been rose gardening for years and, for once, you decide to make a new rose and have it named after you. To hybridize a rose, simply cut off a few blooms from your selected parent plans and carefully pluck out the petals from each of them, leaving behind a golden yellow stamen sitting in the middle. The stamen is what contains the pollen grains, and to bring the pollen out, you first have to let the stamens dry. Place them inside black film canisters (The color makes you see the yellow grains more easily when they come out) and leave them uncovered the entire day. The pollen will come out all on its own. Watch out for the stigmas in your roses. It is that tall gelatinous part of the flower found at the center of the petals. When the stigma becomes sticky, it's calling for pollen to fertilize its mature ovules. Use a clean Q-tip to dab the pollen onto the stigma every four hours the whole day.
Preparing the Seeds
Growing roses from seeds entails ensuring that the seeds have gone through the right preparation methods before they are transferred to the ground as seedlings. To harvest your seeds, pluck out the rose hips and slice them open. Scrape out the pulp and handpick the seeds from out of it-you can throw the pulp and the shells away afterwards. Prepare a mixture of purified water and two tablespoons of bleach. Use this mixture to wash your seeds before soaking them overnight in a 3% peroxide solution. The morning after, some seeds will have floated to the surface of your soaking solution. These seeds are unusable and are best left discarded into the trash bin or better yet, as compost material. Go through one more round of cleaning before you get the seeds ready for stratification. You clean them by placing them on soft cloth and gently brushing them one by one or by washing them simultaneously in a blender with plastic blades. It's important to take note-plastic blades! No metal blades if you don't want to end up with ground rose seeds and wasted time and effort hybridizing them. Now, it's time for stratification. What exactly is that? To stratify your roses simply means to cover them in a paper towel soaked in water and peroxide solution. Place the paper towel in a Ziploc bag and let it cool in the refrigerator for up to ten weeks.
It takes a lot of time, doesn't it? But once you take those seeds out, they're ready for planting.
Planting-Finally!
A light mixture of half-and-half potting soil and vermiculite is best for rose seeds. Place the seeds on a tray of this growth mix and lightly spray some RooTone, Captan, or water-and-peroxide solution to encourage growth and ward off seed diseases that can kill your plants even before they become plants. Cover them with another half inch of soil and again apply some more growth hormones. Find a place where the seeds get as much direct sunlight as possible and make sure they are well-watered every week. You can expect some healthy, transplantable growth on the sixth week.
When you have transferred your roses to a more permanent place on the ground, it's time that they receive the same amount of tender loving care that your other roses have received before. Remember the basics: sunlight, water, and soil. Make sure you provide adequate amounts of these and your roses will surely shower you with huge blossoming rewards.
Catherine Martin comes from a long line of passionate rose lovers, growers and enthusiasts. As an author, she is committed to demystifying the common rose, so that all who wish to can grow them easily. For more great information on the best roses to grow in your garden, visit http://www.rosegardeningexpert.com/roses.html
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