Breeding roses is very time consuming and fairly difficult but extremely rewarding.
Start by find two roses that you want to breed.
Remember that all rose flowers are both male and female, having both the sexual organs -stamens and stigmas - on each flower.
This means there's no need to identify male or female flowers.
Select roses that are not quite fully open so you get a fresh set of stamens and pollen.
Cut out the stamens, carefully at the base so that you don't damage them and set them aside in a small, uncovered container, to dry out.
These stamens will open up after a day or two and release their pollen.
At around the same time as you remove the stamens, the stigmas of each rose will become ready to take up the pollen and you can check this by touching them - they should be sticky to the touch to grab hold of the pollen from insects or the wind, or, in this case, you! If they are not yet sticky then wait a few more days.
The dried pollen will remain active for at least a week so there's no hurry.
Now it's a simple case of transferring the pollen that you've gathered to the roses that you want to impregnate.
Just dip your finger in the pollen and rub it onto the sticky stamens.
Do this a few times over the course of one day to ensure pollination.
Try to remember which flowers you want to breed with which other flowers.
For this reason it's a good idea to label each sample of pollen so you remember which rose they came from.
It also helps to label each rose that you've pollinated so you remember who the father was! After a few weeks you will see the new "hips" starting to grow.
Let them mature for a few months and then cut them open and there you have the seeds to make the new roses with.
Now I know you're keen to get these little babies growing but unfortunately the seeds are not quite ready to pop back into the ground just yet.
They take a little processing first.
Begin by removing all the old plant from the outside of each seed, then soak them all in water overnight.
Generally the seeds that float are not going to germinate so this is a good way to weed out the useless ones.
Once you have cleaned the seeds and sorted out the good from the bad, you still have to exercise patience because the seeds must think that it's spring before they will germinate.
If it's the end of winter then you can plant them outside straight away but at any other time of year you have to fool them into thinking it's spring, so put them in the fridge for a few days first, then when you take them out they should germinate.
Just don't let them dry out during this process.
Once they start growing, the roses like a lot of sunlight and plenty of water.
They are actually fairly easy to grow, just time-consuming.
But don't give up just yet - you're about to see your creation finally come to life! In fact it may take up to three years for your plant to reach full maturity but you should get some nice results a lot sooner than that.
Start by find two roses that you want to breed.
Remember that all rose flowers are both male and female, having both the sexual organs -stamens and stigmas - on each flower.
This means there's no need to identify male or female flowers.
Select roses that are not quite fully open so you get a fresh set of stamens and pollen.
Cut out the stamens, carefully at the base so that you don't damage them and set them aside in a small, uncovered container, to dry out.
These stamens will open up after a day or two and release their pollen.
At around the same time as you remove the stamens, the stigmas of each rose will become ready to take up the pollen and you can check this by touching them - they should be sticky to the touch to grab hold of the pollen from insects or the wind, or, in this case, you! If they are not yet sticky then wait a few more days.
The dried pollen will remain active for at least a week so there's no hurry.
Now it's a simple case of transferring the pollen that you've gathered to the roses that you want to impregnate.
Just dip your finger in the pollen and rub it onto the sticky stamens.
Do this a few times over the course of one day to ensure pollination.
Try to remember which flowers you want to breed with which other flowers.
For this reason it's a good idea to label each sample of pollen so you remember which rose they came from.
It also helps to label each rose that you've pollinated so you remember who the father was! After a few weeks you will see the new "hips" starting to grow.
Let them mature for a few months and then cut them open and there you have the seeds to make the new roses with.
Now I know you're keen to get these little babies growing but unfortunately the seeds are not quite ready to pop back into the ground just yet.
They take a little processing first.
Begin by removing all the old plant from the outside of each seed, then soak them all in water overnight.
Generally the seeds that float are not going to germinate so this is a good way to weed out the useless ones.
Once you have cleaned the seeds and sorted out the good from the bad, you still have to exercise patience because the seeds must think that it's spring before they will germinate.
If it's the end of winter then you can plant them outside straight away but at any other time of year you have to fool them into thinking it's spring, so put them in the fridge for a few days first, then when you take them out they should germinate.
Just don't let them dry out during this process.
Once they start growing, the roses like a lot of sunlight and plenty of water.
They are actually fairly easy to grow, just time-consuming.
But don't give up just yet - you're about to see your creation finally come to life! In fact it may take up to three years for your plant to reach full maturity but you should get some nice results a lot sooner than that.
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