I started out years ago with handwritten markers next to the roses and a drawing of the garden bed with the roses marked on it. Then I gradually increased until I needed a looseleaf binder to hold a page for each rose I had planted, and finally I graduated to an Excel spread sheet. I still do the hand drawn map of each bed (there are now over a dozen distinct areas in my garden so that many maps) and I still have markers next to each rose although now I use a labeler to write out the name. I can identify from memory almost every one of my 200 roses. (But now and then I have brain fade and I have to bend down to check the marker, LOL!) The spreadsheet just helps me track where I bought the rose, own root or grafted, what year, fragrance, size, disease resistance and other info I might find useful.

Tree or standard roses can be made without grafting. Select a strong vertical shoot. Prune to 3' or whatever. Dig out the budeyes except for a few at the top. (These are where every leaf is or was attached.) Remove all the other basal shoots at the graft. Install a permanent stake and fasten the standard (trunk) to it. When new shoots appear at the top, pinch out the tips when they are around a foot long to encourage branching. Rip out new basal shoots as they appear. This doesn't work well with all varieties, as in many cases the trunk will wear out after 5+ years and not support vigorous growth. This type of plant is known as a "self-standard."

Rose cuttings are usually taken from the last month of summer to the first month of autumn ( middle of August to end of October). To grow them outside, take at least 6, 12 inch cuttings of each type rose in case some don't take. Remove the flowers and cut off all leaves except the two that were underneath the flower. Dip the ends in rooting hormone powder ( for semi hardwood plants) and then make a holes with a pencil 6 inches appart.Push them in far enough so that the set of leaves is resting on the soil. Firm the dirt around the cutting. Keep watered until the fall rains come. Next spring use a mild fertilzer such as fish and don't replant until they have had one year of growth.

You root a big long cane of rootstock then graft a rose bud on. Rooting a big cane is not easy especially if you do softwood rooting in Spring or Summer. You get better chance by hardwood rooting in Autumn. The first thing is to find a big long rootstock cane of Dr Huey or Multiflora ... to start with. If it's autumn rooting over Winter, just stick it down and forget about it. Next year they will grow. If you do Spring rooting of softwood young canes, you need to be very careful. here is how I do it at home and get near 100% sucess rate for Dr Huey and Multiflora - Take a 2ltr plastic milk bottle, punch holes at the bottom and pour in a mix of sand and peat. Soak it in water the first time. - Cut long canes, keep about 10 sets of leaves up the top, shear the bottom two nodes and apply rooting hormone - Insert about 10 canes in each bottle! No worry! use ties to hold them in a bunch, fan the top out to help the leaves to get light. - Lay the canes low about 1 foot off the ground and mist the top leaves or spray them by automatic timer every 2-3 hours for 4 weeks Ok, they would have lost all leaves after 4 weeks. Stand the canes up right in part shade. Pot them out when you see a lot of roots through the clear plastic of the milk bottle. Then you must master the art of budding or ship budding or grafting to get the rose buds on. I would suggest chip budding as it can be done most times of the year. -Dmaivn