Propagation: Rose cuttings and seeds, forgotten seeds, list of seeds

Well, I consulted the propagation bible, American Horticultural Society Plant Propagation: The Fully Illustrated Plant-by-Plant Manual of Practical Techniques.

It says rose cuttings should be done in the following ways:

• Take nodal hardwood cuttings in late summer or autumn, taking well-ripened, healthy, woody shoots from the current season's growth, 1'-2' long.  Cut down to 9", and cut through a bud on the bottom end.  Leave top 2 leaves.  Bury up to the leaves.
• After a hard spring pruning, young wood will be produced (shoots that are about 1"-2" long).  Take young cuttings (softwood) in early to mid-spring.  (Lots of detailed, complicated instructions for this one, pp 112).

What a hassle.  And I missed the timing anyway.  So, I just grabbed a bunch of nuisance stems from the rose by the driveway and chopped it up, and set them in water.  I didn't cut through the buds, though, at the bottom.  Perhaps I should on half of them.  I stuck half of them in water, and half of them in water with some water-soluble mycorrhizal fungi.

It might not work.  But the interesting thing is, I didn't get all anxious about it.  Normally, I would've been paralysed by the idea, "this has to work".  I've already failed a bunch at propagation and it's been demoralizing, and I've been afraid so far to try it again.  But I want to get good at this.  And failing will help me get good faster.

I may as well go all out.  I grabbed the 4 remaining rose hips from the plant.  I'll separate out the seeds and stratify them.

Er ma gerd!!  I opened the fridge in the garage and found like 10+ other packs of seeds that I had saved probably 6+ months ago: thornless blackberry, several cherries, two kinds of plum, Good King Henry, two kind of elderberry, hot pepper, and I'm not sure what else.  I collected the thornless blackberry from Beacon Hill Food Forest.  The package had frozen, probably because they were in the bottom of the fridge.  I hope they're ok.  The label on the Good King Henry said to plant them in January!  Bah!  Must get on those.

How can I avoid this in the future?  I think I need to set calendar items.  I'm going to set one for the rose seeds right now, for 4 weeks from today.

Also... man, I have more than 112 types of seeds (some are root cuttings and bulbs).  I've made a spreadsheet.  My plan is to check Charles Dowding's Calendar and the Maritime Northwest Garden Guide every week or so to choose which ones to sow.