Rose makes up about one third of the total cut flower production, with the first degree amoung cut flowers throughout the world. One of the main factors of an aggrigate hydroponic system is to use a suitable plant media with local origin. So the object of this work was to study the possibility of replacement of cocopeat as a imported material with local materials including perlite, leca, zeolite or combination of these and the effect of each of media on growth and flowering characteristics of rosa hybrida Cv. Maroussia. So a randomized block design experiment with four replications was conducted. The treatments were consisted nine growing media: cocopeat(100%), perlite(100%), leca ( 100%), cocopeat (75%) + zeolite (25%), perlite (75%) + zeolite (25%), leca (75%) + zeolite (25%), cocopeat (50%) + perlite (50%), cocopeat (50%) + leca (50%) and perlite (50%) + leca (50%). During and at the termination of experiment stem length, petiol length, cut flower length, stem diameter at bottom and the middle of stem, petiol diameter, fresh and dry weight of cut flowers, flower bud length and diameter and yeild (number of flowers per plants) was determined. The concentration of potassium, calcium and sodium of the leaves and petals and also amount of drinage of pots were determined. Results indicated that plants grown in cocopeat + zeolite and cocopeat showed very high vegetative growth. Adding zeolite to cocopeat increased dry weight and percentage of dry matter of flowering stems compared with cocopeat. Adding zeolite to perlite increased bottom stem diameter, flowering stem dry weight and number of flowers but decreased potassium concentration in leaf and pot run-off water. Adding cocopeat to perlite increased petiol length and diameter, Key words Cut flowers, Growing media, Cocopeat, Perlite, Leca and Zeolite.
