Roses store energy in their canes. What you're seeing is the rose using that energy to produce new top growth even though there are no roots. This happens often when trying to root cuttings. It doesn't mean they won't still root for you though. If the canes are still green all the way down to the soil line just leave them alone and wait.

Under a mason jars and with 80 degree temps I wouldn't put them in full sun. The glass jar magnifies the sun and heat and they will cook inside the jar, Since they're not drying out or turning black they're still doing well so leave them where they are. Rooting is about patience. Some roses will root in just 3 weeks but others may take as long as 6 to 8 weeks to root. If the leaves shrivel and/or the canes blacken then they've died and they won't root.

Thank you, Seil. I will be patient and it's good to know not to put them in full sun.

My soil gets too wet in winter and my cuttings tried under mason jars have rotted. I've had luck just sticking cut off canes in the soil, but I'm not that far from a major river and many, many mornings we have heavy fogs.

A friend has had phenomenal success with mason jar cuttings because her soil is a good draining loam next to a small ever-running creek, and she has a place with dappled sunlight.

Trial and error ......

The soil needs to be moist but not wet because it is easy for them to rot. Really good compost is best. The inside of the jar will become covered with condensation from the soil moisture. If this isn't happening your soil isn't right. My experience is that if they look good after a week ie., they are not wilted, the chances are they will make it.

On a slightly different note, on Facebook somebody posted a story about rooting roses by poking the cuttings in a potato and planting the potato presumably not too deep. Has anybody tried this? I suggested that you would probably end up growing a potato plant.

Liz Druitt, some years ago, did the potato thing. Cuttings all died. She learned that most modern potatoes are dipped or sprayed with a chemical to retard them sprouting. The chemical seems to have the same effect on rose roots as it does on chemical roots.

Jasmine -- We've used with some success -- not mason jars, but actual glass cloches. (See below). But it's not our favorite method.

Jeri

Jeri:
If the glass cloches aren't your favorite method of propagation, I'm curious to know what is?

A different version of the same concept -- A "Terrarium."

These are just large translucent plastic storage bins -- find 'em at Target, or probably Wal-Mart -- with little potted up cuttings inside. We find them easier to manage than a cloche -- YMMV, of course.

Better yet, if you want to do more cuttings, a small greenhouse. Some of them, made with just plastic film, are very very cheap.

Jeri

Those small greenhouses have a TON of good uses. If you're in a cold zone they make a great place to winter seedlings and young cuttings for one thing.

I've had horrible luck trying to create any type of closed environment for cuttings. My humidities are always so high here anyway that closing cuttings into an even more humid environment just seems to make them rot quicker. Generally I only do mine in the early part of the season and they just go outside with the rest of the roses in full sun with no covers of any kind. Since I walk my roses every day I can keep a good eye on their moisture levels. I use seed starter soil instead of potting soil because it's lighter and holds moisture well. I've had the most success doing them this way.

I have 6 that I started in September after our rose show which I don't normally do. That's VERY late for my season. But they were offered to me by a good rose friend who knows how much I love minis/minifloras and some of them are very rare or hard to find. I can see some roots just starting to form in most of the cups now and all of the stems are still very plump and green so I'm hopeful they'll do well in the little greenhouse over winter.

CUPS! Do you use cups? We do!

We got transparent plastic cups at Sam's Club, and DH drilled holes in the bottom, for drainage. We use them over and over, cleaning them, after each use.

And DH mixes his soil for them, including some vermiculite to lighten it.

What we NEVER had any luck with was plastic baggies hanging in a tree. All we ever grew there was fuzzy gray mold. ICK ICK ICK!!!

Seil,
Books from the 1800s recommend rooting china roses in the fall. Rouletti being both a china and a probable parent of early minis might be the reason (in addition to your skill) for your ch....minis doing well.

I'm riding high after having rooted my first cutting. It was Folklore, a pretty hardy and vigorous rose so that probably had somehing to do with it. No luck with the florist roses I tried. Maybe the length of time they've been cut has something to do with it. I also noticed the stems of florist roses are very woody, not the green fleshy tissue like the cutting that was successful.

I sterilized a peat-based potting mix with perlite in a 3" net cup, washed the cutting and sprayed for fungus/mites, shaved a couple spots on the stem and used Clonex gel. I then placed it in a giant blown-up ziplock freezer bag in the window. Somebody made a youtube video here a few months ago and showed that technique. After about a month it rooted like gangbusters!!! Pretty amazing stuff, I'm going to try some more.

I've always thought that the high humidity and added warmth provided by the jar method was very important. So much so that I don't take the jar off until I'm sure the cutting is rooted or dead. If you put several cuttings in a plastic tub with a cover aren't you going to lose heat and humidity for all of them when to take the cover off? Also, with the jar method you can water to keep the soil moist without uncovering them.

Henry, that has not been a problem for us. Cuttings in a terrarium have plenty of warmth, and plenty of moisture.

If there's not enough condensate moisture cycling up and down, we add some. Our soil is alkaline as all getout, and not a treat for plants. Plus, in addition to plants, our garden houses three Dalmatian dogs, who have been known to dig vast holes in pursuit of the many gophers that infest the area.

ANYTHING is safer here in a terrarium.

We didn't invent the method. We learned it from the late Col. Mel Hulse, who had marked success with it, as do a number of other CA rosarians.

MOST of the time, now, our cuttings are in a small greenhouse. But if we're only working with a limited number, we still use the terrarium.

Jeri