I was looking up the patent date on HMF and see it was 1989, so I take it the patent is up and its okay to take cuttings and try to propagate.

Has anyone done that? How does it do own root? Is it worth trying or a dud?

Susan

Knock on wood, but we are getting a pretty good rate of the little cuttings taking off. Just in a half full 1g with a soda bottle lid in the bigger green house

We did, however, grow it for 4-5 years, on Huey. It grew reasonably well (tho I thought it never a pretty PLANT) but in all the time it was here, we saw ONE bloom actually open.

So, when that space was needed for something else, Yves departed, un-mourned.

(Once thoroughly dried out, rose roots make superb kindling.)

Jeri
Coastal Ventura Co., SoCal

I find Yves to bloom really well, both on my original grafted and my own-root. Even though I'm trying to reduce my herd, I'm always tempted to make another plant of Yves b/c I like it so much :-D

Our Yves plant is not so much to look at, but the flowers sure are. I was hoping to root a couple and hide the plant between others.

Paul Neyron had many blooms, but they balled. So I dug him up and found hardened clay soil which restricted his roots and there's zero oxygen down in that "cement block" which enclosed his root. So I put him in a LOOSE potting soil with 55% FINE composted pine bark and he is 100% healthy.

I was hesitant about buying "Crimson Glory" as own-root band after Jeri reported about it being wimpy for her. I was surprised how vigorous Crimson Glory is in my clay soil mixed with pine bark mulch, it does even better with acid fertilizer high in nitrogen. Crimson Glory mildewed for a few days from the nursery, but with my water high in lime (calcium), it's 100% healthy, no blackspot nor mildew.

Mary Mag. did break out in mildew when I gave it too much chemical fertilizer. The salt in the fertilizer induced mildew on Mary, no matter how much water given. I had to scrape off the excess fertilizer, getting all her leaves wet with my well-water, before the mildew cleared up. It dawns on me that Jeri's water is saline (high in salt), which could make mildew a problem in a dry climate.

We don't buy a lot of potting mix-just enough to start seeds in January and a bag of cactus mix for cuttings. We do have our own compost bin full of leaves, horse manure and other good stuff.

That being said, Yves is growing in some hard slimy clay that we could only til up when wet. Even then it comes in massive chunks that we use the back side of the shovel to crack. It did have a lot of composted horse manure added to the bed prior to planting roses.

The addition of the compost has made a big difference in the quality of our soil. We do not rely on certain chemical/fertilizer amendments to change it.

It does not hurt that the horses we gather the manure from eat alfalfa.

Here�s the horse manure composition listed by http://esc.rutgers.edu/publications/stablemgt/E307.htm

From an average out of 30 samples, they are: pH 8 to 8.7 (stables use lime to deodorize their stalls). Nitrogen of 0.8, Phosphorus of 0.55, Potassium of 1.19. Calcium of 1.13, Manganese of 135, Zinc of 52, Magnesium of 0.26, and Iron of 3614.

For me it is easy, I feed the horses for my boss occasionally and buy our chicken feed the same place they buy their horse supplies. We do get a few weeds, since they have a pasture to graze in some, but mostly dock so easy to spot. More work than visiting the local stable though.

You might want to look for a stable that does not use lime since you have such an issue with it to start with. Not every place does the exact same things. FYI if you are putting it in your compost bin, you also need to know the horses worming schedule