154 SATURDAY IN MY GARDEN 



The plan of increasing one's stock of rose-trees by the process 

 known as budding is one that is not often practised by the in- 

 experienced amateur, but it is a method that has many advan- 

 tages, the chief of which is that it enables the grower to perpetuate 

 the varieties of which he is particularly fond by budding them 

 on easily secured stocks of strong wild varieties. The proper 

 time for undertaking the work is late July, when the first flush of 

 bloom is over. 



The first essential is to see that a proper supply of stocks has 

 been secured. The grower who looks ahead obtains his stocks 

 in the autumn, either by cutting them himself from the briars in 

 the hedgerows of country lanes or by securing them in good time 

 from the nurseryman. A stock very largely used nowadays is 

 the manetti, which was introduced from Italy about fifty years ago. 

 The stocks should be planted in the autumn, in ground that has 

 been well dug, and, if possible, on ridges of earth. The reason for 

 this will be seen later. By the time the season for budding comes 

 round the stocks will have formed good roots about four inches be- 

 neath the surface of the ground, and will be ready to receive the 

 buds. The implements necessary for the operation of budding are 

 a sharp knife and some bast, worsted or soft cotton, similar to 

 that used by tallow chandlers for wicks. 



The diagram (No. 13) will help the reader to understand the 

 process to be followed. It is not so difficult as it looks, and the 

 joy of propagating one's own rose-trees is ample reward for the 

 few failures which must inevitably fall to the lot of the beginner. 

 Perhaps the first doubt that will arise in the mind of the amateur 

 who has never before undertaken the task of budding will be : 

 *' What sort of shoot or bud am I to take from the parent plant ? " 

 The answer is simple. For the novice an excellent plan is to select 

 a plump shoot with a good blossom at the end of it. The shoot 

 from which a bud is taken must not be quite ripe. Lower buds on 

 a long-growing shoot, and those below a full-blown flower, are the 

 best. Now begins the preparation of the bud for insertion in the 

 stock. Cut off the leaves at the spot indicated in the diagram, 

 about an inch and a half above the eye, and then proceed to cut 



