118 



0\ GRAFTING AND BUDDING ROSES. 



bound with water-proof bass, without, how- 

 ever, applying grafting clay. Eight days 

 after the insertion of the bud, the stock is 

 pruned down to the branch, which is im- 

 mediately above the bud, on the opposite 

 side ; and this branch is stopped by being 

 cut down to two or three eyes; all the side 

 shoots are destroyed ; and when the bud 

 has pushed its fifth leaf, we compel it to 

 branch by pinching its extremity; it will 

 then flower in September of the same 

 year. 



You may also bud the rose in the spring, 

 without wailing till the bark separates, by 

 placing the bud, with some wood on it, in 

 a niche made in the sto.-k, similar to what 

 would be formed by taking an eye for bud- 

 ding from it in the manner above described, 

 and into which it is exactly fitted with a 

 slight pressure. It is recommended to make 

 the cut for the niche where there is already 

 a bud upon the stock; when placed, the 

 bud is then bound with bass, and covered 

 with mastic. 



For budding in June, I deprive the young 

 shoots of the plants I desire to cultivate of 

 their leaves; and fifteen days afterwards, 

 the eyes or buds, at the axils of the leaves, 

 are sufficiently swelled to allow of their 

 being taken ofi'and inserted as buds. The 

 shoots from these buds often bear in the 

 same year many flowers. In August and 

 September, we insert our buds upon stocks 

 that have not been pruned ; they are placed 

 on the old wood, not only because we bud 

 low, but because this succeeds best. What- 

 ever be the period at which budding is 

 done, if the plant be well pruned on all its 

 branches, the bud does not fail to push. 

 The scion of a rose tree is seldom too dry 

 to take, when the bud is inserted with 

 a thin bit of wood behind its eye. I 

 have thus budded successfully from scions 



that had remained in a drawer for ten 

 days. 



When cuttings for buds are to travel, I 

 pack them in long grass, and surround 

 them with straw, disposed longitudinally. 

 We prefer to graft and bud our roses not 

 more than six inches above ground, firstly, 

 in order that the whole head of the bush 

 may be exposed to the eye of the observer ; 

 and, secondly, because the union is more 

 certain, and the plant keeps the earth about 

 it moist by its own shadow. Besides, it 

 often happens, in bending down the stem 

 of high plants, to see their flowers, that 

 their stem is injured and the buds displaced 

 by the curiosity of persons desirous of mi- 

 nutely examining them. At the pruning 

 season, the branches of the budded plants 

 which are formed into a head, are annually 

 cut back to nine inches in length ; and we 

 do the same thing with our roses which are 

 not budded ; we thus obtain a great deal of 

 young wood, and a bushy plant, as well as 

 a large number of flowers. The pruning 

 is performed at the end of January ; all the 

 four-year-old wood is cut entirely back, and 

 the plants themselves are taken up and re- 

 planted at the end of eight years. 



Whenev^er we wish to make our roses 

 flower in the autumn, we prune them back 

 in the spring, as soon as we can discover 

 their flower buds. In order to obtain stocks, 

 we take from the woods and hedges suck- 

 ers of the dog rose which is very abundant 

 in Flanders, and which, like every other 

 tree and shrub, increases itself spontane- 

 ously, has its roots bent like that of a 

 layer. We select plants without lateral 

 branches, and take them up before winter, 

 to be planted in their places after winter; 

 and we cut down the stem to a foot and a 

 half in length. 



Jean Baptists Van Mons, m. d. 



