When you grow roses from seed, you are essentially developing new varieties of roses. If the rose fruit -- called a hip -- was produced by bee pollination, you don't know what varieties were crossed to get the seeds. Rose breeders hybridize chosen varieties and select for particular traits in resultant seedlings. However, each seedling will be a surprise. Rose seeds have to be collected in the fall, cleaned, and cold-treated before they are planted. Even though the cleaned seeds may look dry, they are not dry inside. If rose seeds are allowed to sit around in the open air and dry up completely, they will not grow.
Rely on honeybees, bumblebees and native bees to pollinate rose flowers. Alternatively, pollinate rose flowers selectively. Choose favorite varieties you admire for color, form, fragrance, disease resistance or other traits.
Choose the pod -- or female -- flower that will produce the seed pod. Remove the petals. Identify the fringe of yellow pollen-producing structures called stamens that surround the central style. Cut the stamens off with small scissors so they will not accidentally pollinate that flower and so that the pollen will be available for planned pollination of other flowers.
Put the stamens in a small, clean vial such as a film canister or a washed prescription vial. Label the vial with the rose's name using a permanent marking pen, and store it, uncovered, in a cool dry place away from direct sunlight. Keep the vial upright so as pollen matures and becomes light and fluffy, it will remain in the vial.
Select the pollen parent flower. Remove the petals and harvest the stamens -- the male flower part that has the pollen -- as in the previous two steps. Check the stamens immediately to see if they are producing fluffy, mature, yellow pollen. If so, proceed to pollination. If not, look at stamens in the vials daily. Use them for pollination when mature pollen is coming loose from the stamens.
Use a small paintbrush to collect pollen from the vial of harvested stamens. Transfer the pollen by touching the paintbrush to the sticky surface of the central style left on the pod parent flower. Clean the paint brush by dipping it in alcohol. Let the brush dry. Or use a new cotton swab and discard it after use.
Repeat the pollen transfer from the same stamens to the same flower after four hours have passed and again after eight hours. Shake the vial to loosen more pollen grains if necessary.
Tie a tag around the stem of the pollinated flower labeled with the parents' names. Put the pod parent first, followed by an "x" and then the pollen parent. Example: Angel Face X Fragrant Cloud.
Allow the rose hips to develop on the plant for at least four months. Cut them off after this ripening period, keeping the tag with the seed pod. Either remove and further treat seeds immediately or store each seed pod in a separate coin envelope in a refrigerator crisper drawer up to several weeks.
Put a ripened rose hip on a clean cutting board and slice it in half with a sharp clean knife. Use the knife tip to remove the seeds from the fruit. Put the seeds in a clean cup.
Add a diluted bleach solution to the seeds to get rid of fungus spores and bacteria. Make the bleach solution by adding 2 teaspoons of household bleach to a cup of bottled drinking water. Stir the seeds with a plastic spoon.
Rinse the seeds by pouring them and the bleach solution into a small strainer. Use enough bottled water to remove all the bleach solution.
Put the seeds back in a clean cup and add hydrogen peroxide to amply cover the seeds. Soak the seeds for 24 hours to further clean and disinfect them. Pour the seeds and hydrogen peroxide into the strainer and rinse with clean water.
Mix half bottled water, half hydrogen peroxide in a shallow bowl. Moisten a thick paper towel with the mixture to help prevent mold growth after you wrap the seeds in the paper towel.
Place the cleaned rose seeds in the paper towel and fold the towel around the seeds. Put the folded towel in a resealable plastic bag and put it in a refrigerator crisper drawer for 45 to 60 days. Check occasionally to see if the towel needs to be remoistened.
Remove seeds from the refrigerator. Fill 2-inch pots with a mixture of half peat and half perlite. Don't remove seeds from the plastic bag until immediately before planting.
Plant seeds about 1/4 inch below the soil surface. Water thoroughly. Make labels with the name of the cross on them for each pot.
Put pots where they receive bright indirect light all day. Keep the soil moist but not soggy. Watch for germination. First, two seed leaves -- or cotyledons -- will emerge, and then true leaves. When the seedlings have three to four true leaves, transplant each to a 4-inch pot.
Put seedlings in larger pots as roots fill smaller container sizes. Evaluate the seedling as it grows, not only for flower color and form but also for branching, bush size and disease resistance. Discard plants with weak or unhealthy growth or with unattractive flowers. Prepare to wait one or two years to see the first flower.
Your Planting Articles
Things You Will Need
- Small sharp scissors
- Small capped vials
- Marking pen
- Clean paint brush
- Clean cotton swabs (optional)
- Stringed labels
- Large coin envelope
- Cutting board
- Sharp clean knife
- Hydrogen peroxide
- Blender (optional)
- Small stiff-bristled brush
- Plastic spoon
- Paper towels
- Resealable plastic bags
- Plant labels
- 2-inch pots
- 4-inch pots
- When soaking fresh seeds, some will float and some will sink. Some rose growers discard the floaters.
- Coat seeds with a fungicide such as Captan or with rooting hormone which contains a fungicide when sowing seeds.
- Don't combine bleach with hydrogen peroxide.
- Don't allow seeds or soil to dry out completely at any point in the process.
- Complete Guide to Roses; Ortho Books
- Jupiterimages/Photos.com/Getty Images