Rooting Roses

We've got a rose bush, over an arbor that leads to the backyard. It's a climbing rose and it's made some lovely pictures over the several years it's been there, but I admit that I haven't been as dutiful as I should have been to keep it pruned. As a result, it's grown all out of control, threatening to tear down the fence and climb up the electric service drop that is nearby.

Here is Milady in front of that rose last spring. As you can see in the picture, it's expanded considerably beyond the arbor, and is climbing on the fence.

This morning I changed all that. I got some pruners and some nippers and I set to work on that overgrown rose. In the words of my Dad, I hair-lipped it pretty good.

This rose has been in my family for several generations, so after I finished the haircut, I went to the hardware store, bought some rooting powder and some potting soil. I found a bunch of pots behind the backyard fence and rooted eight of those cuttings. If half of them "take", I'll have four plants to give away in the spring.