THE SEEDLING-INARCH 53 



INARCHING ROSE SEEDLINGS 



Seedlings of some of the Rose groups resulting from crossing 

 distinct varieties or otherwise take more than one season to 

 produce flowers of maximum size to enable the breeder to judge 

 of their merits. They take much longer to develop when bud- 

 ded on Manetti or other stocks, because in that case a consider- 

 able 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 seedlings three to four weeks old, 

 or after the first few character leaves are developed, lend them- 

 selves very readily to the seedling-inarch method of propagation. 

 Tea and Hybrid Tea seedling Roses will give flowers of maxi- 

 mum 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-in. pot shortly after the cotyledons are 

 developed. The seedling should be placed as near the rim as 

 possible (Fig. 1). In two or three weeks the seedling makes 

 sufficient growth to be removed from the pot, when a little 

 fresh soil is held in place around the root by a piece of cloth 

 about 5 in. square (Fig. 2). The ball containing the roots of 

 the seedling is secured to the stock, the stem of the seedling be- 

 ing placed close to it, so that the inarch may be easily accom- 

 plished (Fig. 3). The union is a rapid one and becomes perfect 

 some time before the cotyledons decay. 



It is well known that many seedling Roses on their own 

 roots produce flowers before the cotyledons decay, but the flow- 

 ers 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 a material aid to the breeder in determining the 

 value of the seedling within a few months after germination 

 (Fig. 4). 



