ABSTRACT
Roses (Rosa spp.) were among the rst ornamental plants to be domesticated. In recent years there has been a signicant increase in the demand for rose plants. In the United States alone, more than 1.2 billion blooms are sold annually. Roses are propagated for the following three distinct production sectors: greenhouse cut ower production, pot-grown owering houseplant sales, and the home gardening market. Many rose cultivars are propagated asexually by budding or grafting of the desired scion cultivar on selected rootstock. Miniature (dwarf) roses are propagated on their own root systems. There have been numerous attempts to develop micropropagation protocols to produce roses that are true to type and superior to traditionally propagated rose plants in terms of price, quality, and growth performance (Dubois et al., 1988; Campos and Pais, 1990; Rout et al., 1999; Pati et al., 2006; Senapati and Rout, 2008).
