192 THE ROSE BOOK 



and other vigorous climbing roses may be easily layered 

 in the summer months when growth is active. 



If the weather continues dry after layering, it would 

 be well to water them occasionally. 



Quite fine masses of roses may be had by layering 

 the shoots of an old plant and leaving them alone. I 

 have seen as many as forty layers round about one old 

 plant, and when the layers and the parent plant were in 

 bloom together they made a gorgeous show. 



Grafting 



Although this method of propagating roses is em- 

 ployed 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 pot- 

 grown plant of a choice rose — one for which he may have 

 paid half a guinea — and that he desires to increase the 

 number of plants of this variety. If propagation by 

 cuttings were practised, not more than five or six plants 

 would be obtained, whereas only two buds are 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 fol- 

 lowing 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 



