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Hi,   ???

I'm relatively new to gardening and next winter I would like to propagate some shrub roses. I've read that it is possible to do this by taking hardwood cuttings. Last winter I successfully propagated red currant and dogwood by taking hardwood cuttings. 20-30 cm put in the ground with sharp sand at the base. Can this method be applied to roses?  Are there some special tricks of the trade? And will roses propagated by taking cuttings flower well?

Or is it better to take semihardwood cuttings second half of this summer?

Your method would work nicely for roses just the same as your soft fruit. There are 2 reasons why Roses are grafted on to briar stock. 1 It is quicker to build a large number of bushes that way. 2. Some rose varieties do not grow very well on their own roots, though this is a mainly Hybrid tea problem. Your Roses from cuttings should be no different than grafted ones except of course no suckers. Best of luck.

Thanks, I'll certainly give it a go.

When we moved from a flat to our house I took some cuttings from a favorite rose bush. People said it would take years to flower and would be suseptible (spelling???) to disease. Dispite my neglect of it one of the cuttings has gone on to thrive and is now in full flower (took a couple of years before it flowered for the first time) and seems to be hardier than anything I have bought.

Nearly all my roses are grown from cuttings, but I don't have a method of taking them. I just snap a piece off and stick it in the ground. Up to now I've had 100% success rate. Last year when visiting Alnwick castle I found the compost heap and salvaged loads of cuttings. I now have some lovely bushes in my garden

Well that sounds something I should be able to master too, thanks. It's funny, I started gardening a little more than a year ago, and growing and pruning roses always seemed to be a bit intimidating. But now I've got a couple of roses growing it's very rewarding. Thanks again.