I am glad to discover that more and more people are wanting to "rustle" (collect and share) old roses. At the beginning of the 20th century there were more than 10,000 varieties of these wonderful old roses in commerce. However, only two-thousand or so are still known to exist today. That is the bad news, but there is a silver lining on this cloud. There are certainly thousands more 'Old Roses" waiting out there in the cemeteries and abandoned home sites to be discovered and rescued from extinction.
So I commend every actual and "would be" rose rustler and hope that more and more people will join me, and others like me, in the effort to discover and rescue some of these wonderful plants from the jaws of extinction.
It is great fun, and a very worthwhile (though occasionally misunderstood) activity. The whole focus is to collect and identify as many roses as possible, as quickly as possible. So I am always on the lookout for roses, and I always carry clippers, baggies, etc.
My rule of thumb, is-
if it is a rose that I am not utterly sure that I already have, I make cuttings and root them.
If it turns out that I have "rustled" a rose that I do not want, well, I can give it away and bless someone else. In all cases, I am very careful not to damage the original plant, and I always try to be a good citizen and good neighbor. The "rose rustlers" of the world do not need to have the animosity of the public rise up and prevent them from rescuing roses. So if you decide to become a "rustler", please read and observe the Rules of Etiquette for Rose Rustlers, and my suggestions on How To Ask For Cuttings.
The tools of the trade include
(1) good sharp clippers,
(2) gallon-sized zip-lock bags,
(3) paper towels,
(4) a pencil,
(5) 3x5 cards for identification,
(6) I recommend a notebook to keep records of where and when you found the rose, and
(7) If you are really serious (like I am),take a good camera and get close-up pictures of each rose, its bloom, and its foliage. It usually takes 5-6 pictures to capture the details of a rose, and a macro-zoom lens let you get very sharp images at close range.
You can carry your "rose rustling kit" with you at all times. What I actually do is just take a notebook with me and write down the locations and tentative identifications as I drive around through life. Then periodically, I will set aside a day to go out collecting cuttings.
When you take cuttings, be sure to label them, using the pencil and 3x5 cards mentioned above. Use a pencil rather than a pen so the writing will not fade and run. There is a lot of information on the Texas Rose Rustler’s page on how to make cuttings. Please check the following Web Page:
http://www.texas-rose-rustlers.com/ms-pp-ct.htm
The whole idea is to get fresh and properly aged materials and then keep them moist until you can root the cuttings. That is the reason for the zip-lock baggies and paper towels. The process seems complicated, but it is really easy:
Be sure to put the baggie in a cool protected place out of the sun, and either plant the cuttings or refrigerate the unopened baggie as soon as possible. I carry a cheap Styrofoam cooler, with a little ice and newspaper, when I am rustling. I put the ice in the bottom with the sodas (double duty), then a layer of newspaper to keep the sodas cool and to keep the cuttings from getting frostbite, and then cuttings, and then the lid to exclude the sunlight.
I like to refrigerate the cuttings for 24 - 48 hours in the crisper portion of the refrigerator. It turns out that if the temperature is below 50 degrees, fungal spores will not germinate readily. So by refrigerating the cuttings for a day or two, I can suppress the fungal spores and they go to sleep for the "winter". That gives the cuttings a head start on the fungus and it also permits the wound where you made the cutting to start forming a callus.
I really encourage you to take many more cuttings than you think that you will need, because you never know how many will strike roots.
Good luck, and - "Keep on smelling the roses".
Last updated 03/23/2001