Monday, September 19, 2016

Roses from Seed Experiment

First off, wow I didn't know it has been such a long time since I posted. Need to get back on this.

So we (Jacki, Bugg, Lucy & I) are moving. To where we don't know yet as the house hunting has just begun. But the current place has a beautiful rose bush which flowered a lot this year.

So I cut off the rose hips and am going to try to get seedlings. First I split the rose hips and dug out the seeds. I cleaned the seeds to get rid of the pulp around them. Next I soaked the seeds in a mixture of 1 cup of water and 1.5 tsp hydrogen peroxide for 1 hour.

Now the fun begins! I have 54 seeds in a damp paper towel in the fridge. Apparently rose seeds won't sprout unless they are kept in cold, wet conditions, mimicking a winter environment.

For the next 60 days I need to keep them damp and in the fridge. Let's hope I don't forget! I just need to add a few drops of water onto the paper towel whenever they begin to dry out. The seeds could take anywhere from four to sixteen weeks to germinate. Statistics say 70% or more of the seeds never sprout at all. Fingers crossed I get more than that.

So once my seeds start to germinate I need to plant them with the sprouts turned down.