Some people learn how to grow roses by going all out, and start by buying several plants to put right into the garden. But what if you could learn rose gardening by a more gradual method? One way of doing this might be to cadge some rose stems from a friend, and see if you can get them rooted and growing in your garden or a container. This might help you discover if you even have an affinity for roses, and it is certainly less expensive than going with a garden center purchase of several bushes.

Some roses work better for this than others. The hybrid tea rose, for example, might be more difficult to propagate by this means, as will Gallica roses. And unfortunately, most of the roses that come from florists will not be amenable to this version of how to grow roses, because of the way they themselves were produced. Floribundas and many others that are actually garden roses do much better, and miniature roses are usually grown this way.

You should do the rose pruning in early spring, taking three or four six-inch stems (or for miniatures, three-inch stems). Cut them on a slight diagonal, in the morning before the stresses of the day. In the past, people knew how to grow roses with cuttings protected by Mason jars, and the practice still works well. So once you have your cuttings, take off the bottom leaves, with just a few at the top, and dip the stems into a rooting powder. Then set them either into your garden soil or into containers of potting soil. At this point, place a Mason jar over each stem and water now and then over the next few weeks.

In milder climates, you may be able to grow rose bushes from these cuttings just by putting them in your garden soil during the summer and forgetting about the Mason jar. On the other hand, in cooler regions, you might start them in containers indoors with a heating pad beneath them to help stimulate the roots. There are some general tips for how to grow roses from cuttings, but these need to be adapted to your particular situation. If you can induce your cuttings to root and start growing, then it might be a good, gradual way to start your rose growing hobby.