Taking rose cuttings is easy and can provide you with free extra rose plants. Subscribe here: https://bit.ly/GardenersWorldSubscribe
It’s important to know how to choose the right stems for propagation to ensure healthy and strong plants, plus making sure you do it at the right time of year.
In this video guide from BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine, Alan Titchmarsh explains when the best time to take rose cuttings is, how to take rose cuttings and demonstrates how to propagate your cuttings to encourage growth.
#gardenersworld #gardening #gardeningtips
For more advice on taking rose cuttings, visit: https://gardenersworld.com/how-to/grow-plants/how-to-take-rose-cuttings/
🌱 BBC Gardeners’ World
Love gardening? Subscribe now for just £12 and get monthly expert tips, grow guides, and all you need for year-round harvest success! Don’t miss out—green thumbs unite!
https://www.buysubscriptions.com/print/bbc-gardeners-world-magazine-subscription?promo=GWYT25&utm_medium=social&utm_source=youtube.com&utm_campaign=6-for-12-2025-trial_gwyt25&utm_content=ribbon
Roses remain one of our most popular garden flowers, if not the most popular, coming in all shapes and sizes. Shrub roses, bush, floribunda, hybrid tea, climbers, ramblers, you name them we’ve got them. They cost quite a bit to buy, especially if they’re container grown. You can, of course, plant them bare root in autumn between November and March. But what you can also do is take cuttings and root your own. One benefit, no suckers or any suckers that do come are not from a briar, but from the actual variety. I quite like taking rose cuttings in autumn in about October, about a foot long and putting them in a slit trench in the garden. But there is nothing to stop you, in the height of summer, provided you don’t let them dry out, from taking some shoot tip cuttings now. This wood is quite pliable, but it’s not too woody as yet. And here, where the flowers are faded, these chunks of stem are prime candidates for taking as cuttings. Just whip them off about a foot long, cutting just above a leaf joint. So shoots will come straight out from there rather than leaving a snag which can die back. And by having stems like this, which I shall then take away in a minute or two and prepare, each one is potentially a new rosebush for nothing. Right, back to the workshop. Rose cuttings aren’t the most comfortable things to prepare. But with any luck, if you find that the thorns on them have gone brown, they’re generally fairly easy to remove, it’s best to take the thorns off because that way they’re not there to rot once the thing’s been inserted. So just snap them off, there you are, you see when they’re brown like that. This is a variety called For Your Eyes Only. Oh, very Bond-like, whip those thorns off. Takes a little while. But one of the pleasures of gardening, if you don’t have to rush. So they come off almost all the way up. If they’re too green, they don’t snap terribly well. So there we are. We can now prepare it by taking off the flower at the top. Now cut it off just above a leaf there. And then at the bottom, strip those bottom leaves off, they’re still spiky even underneath. Ah, and where the leaf joint was there, make your lower cut there, just below it. Nice and clean with a sharp pair of secateurs. So that’s one. And that is how we do it. We do that with absolutely all of them. It’s not the sort of job to rush, really, but there’s certain things in gardening which are nice for calming you down, as long as you don’t stick a thorn in your hand, and just spend your time pottering, looking about, noticing things. Oh, I must get those weeds out of that bed, that sort of thing, you know. There we are, that’s all the ones that are going to be submerged, taken off. You don’t need to worry about the ones that will be above compost level. So I’m going to take that down to that leaf there so the whole flower stalk is coming off. And then I’ll take that other leaf off there. And again, there’s a leaf joint. So just, it’s important your sectors are sharp so they don’t crush it. I didn’t squash that at all. So that is the perfect rose cutting for this time of year. If we’re taking them in autumn to root outside, that can be almost as long again. Ten, 12 inches in old money, that’s 25 to 30 centimetres. Just do a few more. There’s something really satisfying about getting something for nothing, I suppose, because people don’t think about taking rose cuttings. They just think, oh, I’ll buy them in the autumn, you know? Well, it’s always worth having a go and you’ve got that great advantage that any suckers that come up from the rootstock are of the variety. So, you never going to get briar. There we are, into the can of water, into the hormone rooting power. It just gives them the wherewithal. That’s all they need. They don’t need a great clod on the bottom there. And then with your pencil around the edge of a pot. And bury it at least half its length. Well, so just the top leaves are sticking out. Do that with all of these. The thing about doing it around the edge of the pot, I used to take geranium cuttings when I worked in the Parks Department, aged 15. Always rooting them around the edge of the pot. Drainage is fiercer there, sharper there, than in the sort of soggy centre. And what most cuttings need to root is good drainage. If they don’t want to get dry, but similarly, they don’t want to be soggy. You see how far that’s going in? At least half. I really only need four cuttings in this pot. I shall get another one for the others. Into the water, into the rooting powder. Flick it off and then down the side. There we are, water that in. That’s quite important. You don’t want them to dry out now. As I say, you don’t want them to be soggy, but don’t let them dry out and they now have the wherewithal to really root well, and there you’re going to get four new rose plants. They’ll start to root towards the end of the summer. You can, if you like, keep them in that pot, just keep them somewhere sheltered. A cold frame or the lee of the house wall. They’re quite hardy. They’re not going to need any heat. They’ll take a while to root. I would leave them in there until next spring, making sure they don’t dry out and then knock the pot out tease them apart and plant them in the garden, either in a row on your veg patch or your allotment to let them grow bigger before you put them in the garden or put them straight out into the garden. Just making sure we don’t get too much competition. So satisfying, isn’t it? New plants, new roses from just a few twigs. But then it has all been for your eyes only.
32 Comments
Pls what’s the name of the powder you’re using
What if your rose is grafted?
It wasn't clear where exactly he clipped the plant off from the mother plant??
Sorry, I am new to gardening, what is the powder used for the cuttings please?
Doesn't say what soil mix to plant them in
Can we do this with roses from the shop if they give some sprouts? 🌱 but not roots…
Can I just ask what rooting powder gets the best results and also what type of compost works best
Hi how do I make my roses more bushy please 🙏 🙂
I do love AT. The only gardener I actually take notice of.
Sipping my am coffee and your channel popped up. You are delightful. Thank You for the tutorial❣
I tried many times to cut stem as you doing but never seen roots after few months
National treasure is Alan
Can you use this method for the trailing (vining) type of roses too?
So you remember Alan’s garden show. Who was the woman that planted with him? We loved his show!!!
This trick never worked for me.
I’ve tried this but within a week the leaves are dying and falling off, what am I doing wrong?
wow look at all those rose buds! will be trying this technique this Autumn thanks Alan!
Sorry, what powder was it? Thank you
In all my years or gardening Ive never taken rose cuttings !!!!!…………………But Im going to now Cheers from Luke all the way Downunder 👍👍👍
Thank you.
I hope you read the comments because I have a question and would very much appreciate your response. I have a beautiful Princess Charlene rose bush from which I would like to take some cuttings as you have just shown. The concern is that I live in Oregon, USA, where winters can be very cold, long and very wet. Will the cuttings survive being outside on my patio?
I have a rosebush from my late Mother-in-Law and I'd really like to make this work so all the family can have a part of it. I've just followed these instructions. The only thing I forgot to do is to flick off the extra rooting powder from the stems. Really hope this works and that that doesn't affect things. What I don't understand is that the pieces he's working with are pretty much dead? I have everything crossed.
Can I cut stem now
Thanks, Mr. T. You are superb
Lovely enerrgy he has ; Thank you!
Thank you!!!❤
A wonderful, simple process. It was a joy to spend the time with you. Sending blessings from Washington State! 8b. 💛🖤💛
4:40 Into the Roman Lutting Paddick??
I've been successful with two different roses so far. I keep my cutting in a closed water bottle until they get new leaves. Some roses seem to take better than others. The ones I like the least seem to root the best!😂😂😂 Two cuttings I took of a particular bush that doesn't ever do very well, the cane broke, so I figured I'd try it are now two years old. The strange thing is, they have a slightly different color and smell and produce better than the parent plant. That doesn't make any sense at all.
Show how you cut from bush
Thank you Alan 🙏💜
Great to see how it’s done. But why are roses you buy always propagated onto a rootstock? Are the roses you take from cuttings like this inferior in some way because they rely on their own roots?