GRAFTAGE 129 



seedling, provided its roots are kept damp during the attempt. 

 If the inarch is not successful, the seedling can be repotted and 

 grown in the usual way. 



"It is well known that many seedling Roses on their own roots 

 produce flowers before the cotyledons decay, but the flowers are 

 necessarily small and have little to indicate their eventual value. 

 The seedling-inarch system shortens very considerably the period 

 between germination and the production of flowers of maximum 

 size rendering a material aid to the breeder in determining the 

 value of the seedling within a few months after germination. 



Fig. 75. Seedling Roses. Note that the seedlings are potted at the side of the pot 

 in two-inch pots 



INARCHING ROSE SEEDLINGS 



"Seedlings of some of the Rose groups, resulting from crossing 

 distinct varieties or otherwise, take more than one season to pro- 

 duce flowers of sufficient size to enable the breeder to judge of 

 their merits. They take much longer to develop when budded on 

 Manetti or other stocks, because in such cases a considerable time 

 has to elapse before the growth of the seedling is strong enough 

 to give buds and wood fit for propagation by budding or by grafting. 

 Rose seedings three to four weeks old, or after the first few char- 

 acter leaves are developed, lend themselves very readily to the 

 seedling-inarch method of propagation. Tea and Hybrid Tea 

 seedling Roses will give flowers of maximum size very quickly after 

 the tiny seedlings are inarched to strong-growing Manetti or other 

 stocks, thereby saving much time in preliminary tests. 



"The operation of inarching is simplified if each seedling is 

 pricked off into a 2-inch pot (fig. 75) as near the rim as possible, 

 shortly after the cotyledons are developed. In two or three weeks 

 it will make sufficient growth so that it may be removed from the 



