Growing roses from seed

Did you know you can grow roses from seed?

While cuttings and grafting are the main methods of propagating roses, roses can be grown from seed especially in the creation of new cultivars and some rootstocks are propagated this way. Apart from species roses, roses won’t come true to type when grown from seed.

It is easy to grow roses from seed. In the autumn, you harvest the hips from rose plants. The hips are the fruit of the rose plant and turn from green to orange/red as they ripen in autumn. Pick them when they have ripened and remove the seeds, this is easier said than done as the hips are actually quite hard and require a sharp knife or even a hammer to open.

The actual seeds look a bit like baby teeth and the number will vary between varieties – some hips will only have one or two while others will have 20 or more. Remove the seeds from the hip, wrap in a damp paper towel and place in a small plastic bag with a label and place in the fridge. Rose seeds need a period of cold temperatures to stimulate germination so leave in the fridge for 6 – 8 weeks.

Once removed from the fridge, plant the seeds direct in seed raising mix in trays at least 7cm deep, covering lightly and placing in a sunny situation – afternoon shade is ok. Keep watered but don’t overdo it as the young seedlings can be prone to rotting off.

It is only a matter of weeks before the first seedlings start to poke through and it is an exciting time. The first leaves will look like rose leaves and within another month or so, you should get your first flowers although once flowering species roses can take longer. The first blooms will give a reasonable indication of what the flower will look like which will get to its full size through propagation by budding or cuttings.

Any seedlings that show susceptibility to disease should be removed leaving behind those to be kept which can be eventually transplanted into small pots. Those breeding roses to create new varieties will start culling very early, removing a large portion of what grows and only keeping a few of which only a handful will be commercialised.

Growing roses from seed is easy so give it a go. Like anything, you learn a lot as you go along and there is nothing like creating your very own roses.