GRAFTING ROSES

Although this method of propagating roses is em­ployed chiefly by nurserymen, amateurs may care to attempt it. A greenhouse is essential. The operation consists in attaching a portion of the growth of a rose plant, termed the “scion," to that of a Brier or Manetti rose, termed the “stock."

We will suppose that the reader possesses a favorite pot-grown plant of a choice rose and that he wishes to increase the number of plants of this variety. If propagation by cuttings were practiced, not more than five or six plants would be obtained, whereas only two buds arc needed for each graft. The seedling Brier is commonly used as a stock. Seedlings about a quarter of an inch thick, potted up in the winter and grown outdoors in pots during the summer, will be ready for grafting the fol­lowing January or February. Three-inch and five-inch pots are used. The seedling stocks are brought into the greenhouse in November, where in slight warmth they

Commence to grow.

When sap is active they are ready for grafting, but nurserymen graft Briers even when quite dormant, and only pot them up a few weeks beforehand.

Supposing, then, we have active stocks ready for grafting. They are prepared quite easily by making a V-shaped cut down the bark, the stem having previously been shortened to within an inch or so from the top of the pot. The scion is cut in the form of a wedge so that it may fit into the V-shaped slit of the stock, the object being to bring the inner bark of the scion in contact with the inner bark of the stock. The scion is then bound up with raffia.

After grafting, the stocks are placed in a frame on a base of ashes or sand. It is necessary that the tem­perature of the frame should be not less than 80° both night and day. Some growers have the frames placed over the hot-water pipes. The stocks should be well watered before grafting. If this is done they will not need watering for five days after they are in the frame. No ventilation is given for the first six days; after this the glass light may be raised about one inch twice a day for half an hour each time. The plants must be looked over, and if water is needed it should be given with very small water can, so that the scion is not wetted. After the sixth day the amount of air may be increased daily until the fourteenth day, when the glass light is left off altogether.

In about three weeks the little plants may be put out on the staging, and when roots are seen through the hole in the pot they may be potted into five-inch pots in loamy compost in which a fair quantity of silver sand is mixed. Great care is necessary in watering. A slight spraying with the syringe on bright days is essential, and the temperature must not fall below 55°. From 58° to 65° is a good temperature to maintain by day and 55° by night. The hard growths of the previous year make the best scions, but green wood, i.e. growths that have just flowered, may be used. When a variety is very scarce the tops are taken from the young, grafted plants, and they in turn are used as grafts. This system is not commended, for it has a tendency to weaken the rose and is responsible for lack of vigor in many new roses.

There is nothing gained by grafting roses out of doors;   indeed, it is rarely successful.    But the French nurserymen graft many thousands of seedlings in the winter time and plant them in sand under cloches afterwards, transplanting to the open ground in May and June. Roses potted up into five-inch pots may be budded in June, and by so doing the trouble of grafting.¹ is alleviated, for if these budded roses are placed in a  warm greenhouse in December, and the tops cut off close to the inserted buds, the latter will soon grow and make better plants than the grafted ones. This is a simple method of obtaining pot roses. Roses budded in June would make plants fit for forcing in eighteen months.