I just love roses. I don’t know their varieties or names, but instead, I’m the gal at the nursery going around sniffing all the roses to see which ones smell best. And that’s how I decide which to buy.
Now that I have a greenhouse, I’m experimenting a lot more. Did you know that these little fruit-looking things on rose plants are called rose hips?
They’re super tricky to detect if you’re not looking for them.
But once you start looking closely…suddenly you start noticing them.
They sort of look like tomatoes or persimmons…and they contain the rose seeds!
I’ve never tried germinating rose seeds before, so bear with me as I try this. I cut a few off my rose plants around the garden. Some are green, some are dried up, some are somewhere in between.
I cut each open carefully and pulled out what looked to be the seeds.
Some were large rose seeds.
And some are so small that I’m not sure they’re in fact seeds.
I mean…are these seeds?! They’re so small!
I’m using a paper towel method in a bag. Mixing 1 cap full of hydrogen peroxide with a 12 oz. bottle of drinking water, I dampened the paper towel on which I’d placed the seeds. The paper towel should just be damp; be sure not to have any excess water in the bag.
When I popped these into the fridge, I placed them with paper towel side up so that as these germinate, the tiny roots don’t get stuck on the paper towels. Apparently, seeds germinate down via gravity, and pulling these tiny germinations from the paper towel would be nearly impossible to transplant.
I clearly labeled each bag and plan to leave them in the fridge for 6-8 weeks. Like many seed varieties, rose seeds need a cold “stratification” period before they’ll germinate.
Heh…old hip. New hip. My mom should appreciate this one…
If all goes well, I’ll be able to transplant in the greenhouse and grow some baby rose plants as gifts by spring! Perfect for teachers, mother’s day, birthdays, or house warming gifts, right?
Stay tuned as I’ll update with progress…
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