Select a shallow tray or flat with several drainage holes; fill it with fine sand or vermiculite. Shell the seeds and plant them 1/2 inch deep. Water thoroughly.
Keep the sprouting medium warm (55-60 F) and moist, never soggy wet. Provide no light until the seeds begin to germinate; then give 16 hours of light a day.
Germination will begin soon, and it will contiune for 2 or 3 months. Seedlings emerge with a bent neck and straighten out in a few days. Coyyledons (seed leaves) will stretch out horizontally and turn green.
Then they are ready to be transplanted to a potting medium. The American Rose Society recommends a medium composed of equal parts of sterilized topsoil, perlite, and peat moss. To each bushel of the mixture, add 1 cup dolomite lime, 1 cup superphosphate, 1 cup rose food, and 1 cup 50 percent Captan.
Transplant the tiny seedlings into well drained, large plastic or metal pans or flats filled with the growing medium. Give them 16 hours of good light per day in a warm place (70 F). Fluorescent fixtures give excellent, controlled lighting for growing the seedlings.
Water sparingly. Blot off any water that remains on the leaves. Allow plenty of ventilation. After the first true leaves form, either put them in 3 inch pots with the same soil mixture as before, continue growing them in flats, or transplant them into the garden. Seedlings may bloom when they are several months old. Bud the seedlings that do well onto sturdy rootstock.
