Growing Roses From Seed

[tlcmd]

My son's girlfriend is doing volunteer work in East Lancing, Michigan, setting up a community garden. She would like to try to grow some roses from seed which I'd like to give her as a Christmas gift. (Yes, I'm a last minute shopper.) Could I get some suggestions and sources for rose seed varieties appropriate to Zone 5. Preferably varieties which are disease and pest resistant and fairly easy to grow.
Not being a "rose grower," I'm at a loss. I'm a tomato person.

Thanks,
Dick

[mjc]

http://www.rdrop.com/~paul/manners_seed.html

There are a couple of more articles on that site. As for seed sources...probably have to collect your own.

Roses are usually propagated from rooted cuttings.

[remy]

Only species roses grow true from seed and those are probably not the type of roses she is thinking of.(If she is, I might have Rosa glauca hips out back still if the birds didn't get them that you can have.) If you want to get her some roses, I suggest Chamblee's Roses. Chamblee's is a great company and inexpensive. They are in Texas, but they carry Buck Roses. Buck Roses are great for northern gardens. They were developed by a now deceased professor at Iowa State University. He worked to make cold hardy, disease resistant, and pretty roses. Here's the link. When there scroll down. On the left is a clickable link that says Dr. Griffith Buck Roses. http://www.chambleeroses.com/
I absolutely love the Bucks that I have. I think some are on my rose pics threads farther back on this forum.
Remy

[tlcmd]

Remy,
I appreciate the reply and wish to take you up on the offer. Email an address to me at tlcmd@hotmail.com and I'll send you a SSAE. I assume a business sized one will suffice.

I took a class in lawn maintainance about 30 years ago and a discussion of rose gardening came up. That is essentially my single expose to growing roses.

My home garden contains some companion plants and grand wormwood to support the tomatoes, cukes, okra, squash, etc. Roses are definitely not my forte, but as my probably future daughter-in-law is going to be setting up and running a community garden in East Lancing, Michigan and would like to try growing roses from seed, I'd try to get some and help her out. BTW, Chamblee's only sells plants, but I've got inquiries out to several seed companies which do carry rose seeds. It's a question of which ones are easy to grow, disease resistant, and can survive the Michigan winters (Zone 5). Downhere in N.C. Zone 7, I don't expect a problem.

Again, thanks for the offer and assistance.

Dick aka tlcmd

[habitat_gardener]

Is there a native plant society in Michigan? If so, they can probably advise which native species would be appropriate. For a community garden, native roses would be the best choice for pollinators, but (if they are anything like the native roses in Calif.), they might not be the most well-behaved plants. Our native roses tend to produce thickets, which are great for wildlife (wonderful cover for birds) but not for limited space, though they can be tamed by limiting the amount of summer water.

Here are some resources I found
http://nativeplants.msu.edu/rosset.htm
http://www.mnppa.org/members.html

[Tom C zone 4/5]

Rose from seed is an ideal plant for wintersown or cold frame (cold) stratification. It-they often will take more than an entire growing season to germinate.

Hm, meaning I've dumped out a germinating flat in the fall after they've done all their heavy lifting, only to have the dumped out tray deliver a second crop the next spring...

Interesting woody plant. Somewhat exasperating tho...