Cuttings and lifespan....?

Sorry, these be stupid questions, but I am still pretty nieve still when it comes to gardening.

I am wondering about the lifespan of plants that are grown from cuttings. If a plant, let's say a rose bush, is said to live 20 years, and a cutting is taken from it at 5 years old, will the new plant grown from that cutting have a lifespan of 20 years or 15 years?

That brings me to admit another nieve thought I have. Where can you find out the lifespan of various plants? And why don't I see plants dying of old age all over the place? I guess I see trees get old and die because they leave snags, but do plants in your yard also eventually die from old age? I live in a house that was built in the 50's so I have some pretty old plants, but none look like they are "aging" in a bad way. They mostly just look full and mature.

I've been wondering these things for a very long time. I will be so happy to finally get some answers :)

If you take a cutting from a tree that grows in the wild, it will have a life expectancy that is equal to its parent.

If you take a cutting from nursery grown stock, there are a lot of variables that can affect the plants life expectancy. The big one is if the parent plant is a graft or not. If you get a cutting off of a grafted plant, it could live longer or it could live shorter.

I read an article on this several years ago and have some of those questions too. I'm not sure I believe it. When you consider how many plants originated as cuttings from a single seedling or sport and the only way to propagate is by cutting, it just doesn't seem to hold up. It seems we'd be losing plants at very noticeable rates. Or life expectancies are so great that we won't have to worry about it.

You are talking about perennials right? Most perennials live along time if given a little care.Planted in the right spot,proper ph,water,nutrients,pruned,thinnedand zoned for your area.Most shrubs become over growned and have to be removed or at least pruned back at dormancy.You could cut a lilac bush to the ground and it will grow back.Trees seem to die from nature,such as disease or wind storm.Edge

Yes, I'm talking about perennials. Thanks for all the info so far everyone.

With the exception of a few short-lived perennials, there are so many things that can happen to them (fungus, insects, rabbits, deer, moles/gophers, pets, kids, lawnmower, over/underwatering, etc, etc, etc) that many of them won't ever get to die of old age--chances are something else will get them first!