Air Layering to Root Roses

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Air Layering to Root Roses. Rose propagation is a fun and easy way to get more roses for your garden.

Air layering roses is a faster way than cuttings to get larger rose plants that bloom.  

A fast and easy way to root roses. Air Layering to Root Roses you will get larger roses faster than you do with cuttings. Fun and easier than you would imagine. Come join me in some propagating fun! FlowerPatchFarmhouse.com

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I used air layering to root wisteria a few years ago and it was reasonably easy but the method was a bit fiddly.  This method was fun and in four weeks I had successfully gotten roots!  

What is Air Layering?

Air layering is a process by which a new plant is grown from a section of an existing plant above ground.

The section of plant stem or cane you are trying to grow roots on stays attached to the mother plant until they have formed.

Once roots have formed, you will remove the stem from the mother plant below the area.

Why air-layer roses

Air layering to root roses is even more fun (in my estimation) than rooting from cuttings. But the big benefit is you get a larger rose much faster and blooms too.

I have a great post on Rooting Roses from cuttings if you prefer propagating roses that way.

Materials for Air Layering

First let’s prep all the materials.  I used peat moss for this because someone had given me a couple of bags but usually, I use coconut coir mixed with a touch of potting soil.

Supplies:
Empty water bottle (the thinner the plastic the better, it is easier to cut through the rim at top)
Spaghum Moss or coconut coir.
If you don’t want to fuss with the water bottle here are some Rooter Pots you can use, they are made for this.

Something to tie around the bottle or duct tape (I use strips of old pantyhose, I use them a lot in the garden)
Hormex 8 Rooting hormone

Sharp knife
Aluminum Foil

Prep your rooting medium

Once you have your supplies together, get your moss good and soaked.   It can take a while for it to become thoroughly saturated so start on this part ASAP.  

Coconut coir is the same as far as prepping.

A fast and easy way to root roses. Air Layering to Root Roses you will get larger roses faster than you do with cuttings. Fun and easier than you would imagine. Come join me in some propagating fun! FlowerPatchFarmhouse.com

I have also successfully used potting soil for this but you will need to check it frequently to make sure it stays moist.

FYI, I have seen some using toilet paper to wrap the canes but I have yet to test this method. Go ahead and give it a try and let me know what you find out.

Prepare a container to wrap Rose cane with.

Next, take your water bottle and cut down one side from the top to the bottom, and then a small hole large enough for the rose cane you are going to root.  

You want it to be only slightly larger around than the cane so it won’t lose moisture or the coir when you water.

A fast and easy way to root roses. Air Layering to Root Roses you will get larger roses faster than you do with cuttings. Fun and easier than you would imagine. Come join me in some propagating fun! FlowerPatchFarmhouse.com

This is where the lighter-weight water bottles are handy, they are easier to cut through.  I have wimpy hands right now because of carpal tunnel so I go for easier.  

I eyeballed the diameter of the cane and cut a hole to match the bottom, actually, mine is a bit larger but it will still work.   The mouth of the bottle will be at the top of the rooting area.

Fill the Container with Medium

Now fill the cut bottle with the moist moss, just squeeze out the excess water with your hand and pack it in the bottle.  

Tamp it in well but don’t overfill, you will add more after getting the moss-filled bottle wrapped around the cane.

Note: this is best done during the active growing season, like late Spring after the first flowering or mid-summer, late summer is iffy but doable.

Prepare rose cane for are layering

Now you can pick your cane to air layer.

Choose a cane that has just finished flowering. (why I am not sure but that is the usual advice)

In the following photo, I show I am using a cane of one of my climbers, it is a bit bigger around than a pencil. 

A fast and easy way to root roses. Air Layering to Root Roses you will get larger roses faster than you do with cuttings. Fun and easier than you would imagine. Come join me in some propagating fun! FlowerPatchFarmhouse.com

First I make two cuts into the green layer approximately an inch and a half apart all the way around the cane.

A fast and easy way to root roses, air layering. You get larger roses faster than you do with cuttings. Fun and easier than you would imagine. Come join me in some propagating fun! FlowerPatchFarmhouse.com

You then need to peel or scrape away the green layer with a sharp knife to reveal the white layer.  

Be careful not to cut too deep or your cane will snap off.  Just get deep enough to be able to peel away the green layer.

Paint the rooting hormone onto the white area. You can use an old craft paintbrush or a cotton swab.

Wrap rose cane with container

Wrap your moist moss-filled water bottle around the cut portion of the cane. 

If you need to fill the bottle with more to make it nice and snug go ahead, just make sure the cane is in the center of all the moist moss.  

A fast and easy way to root roses, air layering. You get larger roses faster than you do with cuttings. Fun and easier than you would imagine. Come join me in some propagating fun! FlowerPatchFarmhouse.com

Secure it with your ties or duct tape.   (I like using the ties so I can open it up and check for rooting easier)

Protect air layering container

A fast and easy way to root roses, air layering. You get larger roses faster than you do with cuttings. Fun and easier than you would imagine. Come join me in some propagating fun! FlowerPatchFarmhouse.com

Now you should cover the bottle with foil to keep it from getting too hot in the bottle and it will block light that can cause algae to grow.

Keep the moss moist. You may not need to water it, but if you can put your pinky finger down the bottle spout to check it. 

Remember that the topmost moss gets more air than the center so even if it feels dry close to the opening it may not be dry in the center. 

If you need to, water it through the top hole. 

Check for roots

After 4 weeks open it up gently (in a way that you can close it back up easily) and check to see if you find roots or signs of them developing. 

If you look at the photo below you will see white nodules, which is a sign of roots beginning even if you don’t see any actual roots yet. 

A fast and easy way to root roses, air layering. You get larger roses faster than you do with cuttings. Fun and easier than you would imagine. Come join me in some propagating fun! FlowerPatchFarmhouse.com

I checked mine after 4 weeks. Yay!  We have roots.   I close it back up and let the roots get longer and stronger before severing the cane below the roots and potting it up.

Once you have a good mass of roots it is time to cut the cane from the rose and pot it up.

A fast and easy way to root roses. Air Layering to Root Roses you will get larger roses faster than you do with cuttings. Fun and easier than you would imagine. Come join me in some propagating fun! FlowerPatchFarmhouse.com

Now I will have another gorgeous climbing rose to add to my garden or give to a friend.

This was my first time using this technique on a rose and it was so easy I could not be more thrilled with the results.  

Go ahead and give air layering to root roses a try, you may be hooked too.

Want to see how I remove the new rose from the mother plant?
I show you in this post Potting Up Newly Rooted Roses

Just a note:  many roses are patented, I only propagate roses that are not under a patent, there are plenty out there.  There are restrictions on propagating patented roses and it is against the law.

More propagating Posts you will enjoy!
Rooting Lilacs from Cuttings
Free Geraniums by Cloning
Grow Clematis from Cuttings

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Pink roses on trellis with text overlay, fastest way to Propagate Roses, super easy

Happy Gardening!

Hi, I’m Pamela

I am a 40-year master gardening enthusiast who loves to share the simple tips, tricks, and inspiration I have learned from personal experience.
My goal is to cultivate the love of gardening and help make your gardening life more enjoyable!
a Garden Friend!

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34 Comments

  1. No worries, don’t worry about it too much. You really don’t know for sure and you are not going to be selling them in mass so don’t stress on it. It is aimed at folk trying to create mass quantities of plants and selling them to the public without paying for a license to the hybridizer. If it is a well-established rose garden most roses may well be off patent anyways.

  2. Hello Pamela,
    Newbie here to growing. I wanted to ask a question concerning air layering rose bush plants. How is a person to know if you have a “patented plant” in your yard if you purchased a home with several Rose bushes. I wanted to try and practice your technique of Air layering to give to friend but now I am unsure if I should due to what you disclosed concerning “Patent Plants” concerning Rose Bushes. Any advice greatly appreciated. Thanks

  3. Thank you for sharing. I have two rose plants that are ancient from my father’s rose garden. He died 8 years ago at 94 and I have been wanting new rose plants from his because I am afraid I am goin to eventually lose them. Now I can try this. I am so excited. Thank you

  4. Most of my roses are “own root” meaning they are not grafted. Many roses really have no need to be grafted and grow robustly on their own roots. There is a greater demand for own root roses. Sites like Heirloom roses and Antique Rose emporium carry exclusively roses on their own roots while David Austin Roses has incorporated more of their roses in their selection of own root. With own root roses there is no problem with suckering which is a boon.

  5. The new rose plant no longer has the benefit of being grafted to a rootstock. Have you noticed any difference in the vigor, insect or disease susceptibility in the air layered clone from the mother plant? Thank you for an excellent guide to air layering roses!

  6. I did one this past September and I need to check to see if the roots are large enough to cut and pot up. I am in Zone 8a too but we get lots of wet, heavy snow in winter and my roses go dormant. This was a test run so I don’t know how successful I will be.

  7. Hello! Thank you for the tips on how to air layer roses. Have you tied doing it during fall time with huge success? I live in 8a (south east) and I would like to try it now. We only get very mild winter so roses just kinda thrive and even flower all year long. Please let me know.. Thanks again!

  8. I’m thinking now that rain water got the medium in my air layer too wet. When I opened it up, it seemed much wetter than when I started it, and had that funky smell that tells you something anaerobic was going on in there. The branch was nearly horizontal, so was likely not draining well. Next year, twist ties or duct tape on the top side of the air layer, or use a vertical branch.

  9. On the rose the foliage stayed the same as the rest of the rose and even when I cut it off and potted it up it looked just fine. Sorry about your apricot tree. I have yet to try grafting, I really want to and should. Especially on some of my Japanese Maples.

  10. I tried air layering for the first time this year, on my apricot tree. After 4 weeks, the leaves on the layered branch started turning pale. I waited another couple weeks as it continued to lose color, then went ahead and cut it from the mother, figuring it was a goner. It had some white callouses but no real roots. I planted it anyway, and it died almost immediately. Did your layered rose foliage change color? Is that normal, or should the layered branch look the same as the rest of the plant, even up to the day you cut it off? I suppose I’ll try again next year, and leave it on there for 10 weeks, no matter how ugly it gets. Nice to do these little experiments on branches that I would otherwise just prune off anyway!

    I tried grafting (apple) for the first time too, which went much better, ~90% success, though I should probably wait a whole season before patting myself on the back.

  11. I tried this but after 6 weeks I still dont see the roots. All i can see is this white stuff that bulged around the edge of where I took out the skin. I am not sure if I have done it correctly.

  12. Commercial composting must be heated to a certain level and maintained for for a long time, the beneficial microbes do their job well. Most residues are degraded enough not to be an issue. If you are concerned do a simple test. Get enough of the compost to fill several small pots. Get whatever growing medium you feel is safe. Fill 4 pots with the compost and 4 with the trusted medium. Plant tomato seeds in each pot. Make sure to mark them well. Watch how they grow and compare. Then decide.
    I don’t have an issue as the local place I get compost is an organic turkey farm. The other composts the yard waste generated here in the mountains, which is pine needles, chipped branches and such things so those type chemicals are minimal. However, it has been found that the trees here are laden with chemicals absorbed (arsenic and cyanide) from when this was a lumber mill and mining economy town. So no matter where you are you will find some kind of toxins present in our environment. The natural microbes and beneficial bacteria of composting is one of the best ways to mitigate the issue. The earth is beautiful at fixing itself if we quit polluting it.

  13. Couldn’t composted yard waste contain chemical lawn fertilizers and Roundup? I worry about this so avoid products made with yard waste.

  14. Early Spring when things are just starting to leaf out and grow is the best time to air layer trees, including Japanese Maples. I should do a post on that too, thanks for the idea. I have wanted to try grafting but always chicken out.

  15. Sherie Cochran says:

    For layering a red bloodgood maple tree, what time of year would you do that? Spring when it’s starting to leaf out? Just before that when there are only buds? Or after it has leafed out fully? I was thinking just when it started getting leaves….as they were forming…..or maybe just before so it would maybe push the leaves out and form roots at the same time…..? But during that same time the temperatures can change so quickly and can get pretty cold and it could even have a late snow and that might not be good for new roots forming…..but during that time, most of the new budding leaves the cold doesn’t seem to effect, unless it is a heavy ice storm. I would also like to layer my pecan trees. I’ve tried grafting them and I’m not good at that yet…I need more practice on that. I started following you on FB and have bookmarked you also….I love your articles. They are nicely written, so thank you for sharing all your experiences. I love to see what I can grow, from seed, or propagating…. now I just tried layering about 3 weeks ago, before I found your blog. I air layered a house plant and I have no clue what the plant is…which is strange for me not looking it up. Because I normally try to learn about the plants I have.

  16. I would love to learn that too. It is a long intensive process, like 9 to 10 years to bloom but I am sure it would be wonderful.

  17. Jessica Angoman says:

    Hi Pam,

    I really want to know how to grow roses from seeds and also hybridizing Roses.

    Thank you

  18. I am not familiar with growing them in your area and over wintering can be tricky in such extremes but the way you describe seems to be the best way with your being gone that long. You may try asking at a local nursery since they would most likely know more about growing in your region than I. All the best.

  19. Paul Johnson says:

    Hi Pamela,
    I will start air layering a few Rose plants, hopefully once I get these plants please tell me how do I care for them the first winter. I go south about 15th. of November and come back about 15th. of March, can I berry these plants along with the pot in my raised bed? I cant leave them in a basement or any kind of indoor protection. We are talking about Minnesota zone4.
    Thank You
    Paul

  20. It should do fine, you can cut them to the ground and they will come back but it can take them a couple years to be as lush. They are tougher than many think.

  21. My gardner hacked away at my Clematis. Its still alive, but struggling to come back. It is really beautiful when blooming. I have been feeding it every other week.

  22. Edna’s Best it is. Now to find it around here! TKU.

  23. I was making my own but failed to get a truck load of the compost from the local debris yard, something I regret. I tried the local store brand of potting soil and was so disappointed in the performance of my plants so I tried E.B. Stones “Edna’s Best” organic potting soil. My plants loved it! So though it is twice the cost of the local store brand of potting soil I am sold on it’s much better quality and performance, well worth the $$$. I do still plan on creating my own again for cost effectiveness but when I can’t I will use Edna’s Best.

  24. Pamela: What kind of potting soil do you prefer? I have had some quite awful stuff in the last year. Plants don’t like it one bit. Wish I could recall the brand but it’s long gone. Thanks for this post, It looks like you have the “real thing” method here!

  25. You are right about the rose cuttings, Pamela – in fact, I had a gorgeous rose “Black Beauty” turn up its toes this year and the two cuttings I took when I pruned have struck so yippee, I haven’t lost this gorgeous bloom. You describe everything so clearly Pamela that it makes it easy for us home gardeners to go out and give it a try! And…did you hear my squeal of delight this morning when I checked the delphiniums seeds that had germinated on coffee filters and I put them into seedling trays – YES – they have all popped through the modified soil so thank you so much – every web page I browsed said how difficult it is to grow delphiniums from seed – well, I know this is early days but I think I might have conquered the hard part many thanks to your guidance. Now hopefully my seeds will arrive soon from New Zealand (thank you also for that web address!) Happy gardening from Down Under!

  26. It is so fun and easy. I am testing it on other roses now. Thank you for sharing, I know many others will love this method too!

  27. Thanks for the tips. You would think I would’ve thought of that since I do use the hot method to poke holes in plastic containers for drainage. Sometimes the obvious slips past my brain. 🙂 It is great to take way more cuttings than you think since you can and will lose some all along the way to healthy plants. Of the tons I took last year and over wintered I have maybe 5 roses to show for it. They were doing so well then here and there they will die off for no apparent reason (could be I am so busy that I fail to keep a close eye on them and see to their immediate needs). Happy Spring to you. I am facing Fall reluctantly but I am having fun planning for next season. I have a list of new plants (new to me) to put in my garden. And I am getting ready to sow Fall seeds for more lovelies next year.

  28. I have wanted to give it a try for ages and just never took the time, and once I experienced how easy it was I am addicted. Next I want to graft some Japanese Maples.

  29. What makes it great is it is so easy and crazy fun! I have had success with ground layering too, which I should share but I failed to get photos of it. So I need to do that ASAP!

  30. How did I not know about this method! Holy cow I feel like a newbie gardener. Loving this method and I am so glad you shared it with us over at the link party. pinning this and I will also share it via FB too.

    Thanks again for linking up!

  31. Thank you Pamela for sharing this method – I love it because you can do it at a different time of the year to when you prune! I have used water bottles to germinate many types of seedlings when I worked in Africa – I would cut a bottle in half lengthwise and put some minute drainage holes on the underneath – here’s a hint when you are cutting that I found easy on my arthritic writs, Pamela – have a tea candle and a small sharp pair of scissors just for this job (I cut so many bottles so it was OK to allow a pair of small surgical scissors just for this) – heat the sharp point of the scissors for a few moments over the tea candle and you will find cutting a piece of cake – you soon catch on how long to leave the scissors over the flame – when I needed drainage holes, I just pierced the area quickly with the heated sharp/pointed scissor end. For a large drainage hole, you just turn the scissors in your hand in a circular movement and bingo!
    It is so timely that you post this method Pamela – I have just been out to check my many pots with the traditional method of cutting taking after our weekend rains and quite a few pots have either buds or new leaves (too embarrassed to say how many cuttings I have, Pamela, but it is so much fun) – but your method sounds very exciting and so much fun because you can take a cutting from someone’s bush when it is in flower! Thank you once again for the inspiration – for us here in Australia, spring officially starts Sept 1st so…. must start collecting water bottles!

    Happy gardening!

    Rae

  32. Amazing how that worked 🙂 You have a green thumb for sure.

  33. Thank you, Pamela, I pinned! I think this is brilliant. You are a good teacher. You make everything easy and clear.
    -Ginene

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