Spring Flowers and Rooting Roses

After several days of snow last week, it finally feels like Spring is here.  The air is warm and the first flowers are starting to open.  I have snowdrops, violets and early daffodils blooming under my Forest Pansy tree, and the little twig of Forsythia I bought at a plant sale two years ago is blooming vigorously in a pot on the deck.  We planted primroses on the front porch, and they add a dash of color to the green landscape.

My mother has an incredible rose in her garden called Jude the Obscure.  It’s a creamy, peachy white, smells great and blooms all summer long.  We go to a wine festival every July and I always take a bouquet of Judes.  Every year, people love it.  They want to know what kind it is, where to get it, and if it’s even a rose at all- it looks a lot like a peony.  I always tell them to go to Heirloom Roses in St. Paul, Oregon to get one, but lately I’ve been dreaming of a whole hedge of Judes someday, and would love to have bushes that I rooted myself.  So yesterday, after my mom pruned her Jude bush, I trimming some of the cuttings and with the help of a rooting hormone, I potted them on the deck and hope they will grow.  I tried five cuttings last year, and one took root and actually bloomed, so this year I tried ten, hoping that two of them might grow. If I keep this up, I will have enough for my hedge someday.  I also tried some from another rose, Molineux- a beautiful ruffly yellow one.  Maybe this summer I’ll have blooms off my new roses- I’ve got my fingers crossed!

The pruned rose bush

The cast off prunings

My trimmed starts

The tools and supplies

Dipping the end in rooting hormone

My potted cuttings

Last year’s sole surviver

A Jude the Obscure rose in full bloom