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January 5, 1905. 



The Weekly Florists' Review* 



363 



THE HISTORY AND CULTURE OF 



GRAFTED ROSES £2S FORCING 



■V ALEXANDER MONTGOMERY, jr.. 

 WABAN ROSE CONSERVATORIES. NATICK, MASS. 



COPYRIQHT, 1904, BY FLORISTS' PUBLISHING CO. 



lii MWW l WWSW O i lWIMllM M MMltlil WiW 



The Various Stocks. 



In comparing the desirability of the 

 different stocks which could be made 

 available, we have used the common dog 

 rose or brier (Bosa canina), Eosa multi- 

 flora Japonica and De la Grifferae, Rosa 

 Banksia and Manetti. In regard to re- 

 sults, there is such a vast superiority in 

 the use of the Manetti that comparisons 

 are of value only as a matter of inter- 

 esting history. 



The brier, the most popular stock used 

 in the British Isles for the production 

 of exhibition blooms, has already been 

 mentioned. 



Faults of Multiflora. 



Multiflora has never proved satisfac- 

 tory, never in fact being equal on the 

 whole to own-root plants. While it is 

 undoubtedly a vigorous grower, it does 

 not seem to have the property of being 

 able to transmit this quality to its 

 scion and, moreover, we have never 

 been able to produce a bloom from a 

 multiflora graft that wa-s equal in color 

 to one from an own-root plant. But be- 

 yond all these objections, it seems to 

 be extremely susceptible to the club- 

 root caused by eel worms or nematodes, 

 and this fact alone ought to make its 

 use objectionable, for most rose growers 

 of even limited experience know that 

 it is only too easy to get club-root on 



etti has been a failure with roses of the 

 Perle des Jardins type — we gave it a 

 trial, using the variety Sunrise, planted 

 in a solid bed. For the first four 

 months they absolutely refused to move, 

 merely keeping alive; then suddenly 

 they began to pick up and show signs 

 of increased activity. Suspecting what 

 might be the cause of this new lease of 

 life which the plants had taken, several 

 of them were dug up and, sure enough, 

 our judgment was correct: they had be- 

 gun to send out own-roots from the 

 callus at the union of stock and scion, 

 while the stocks themselves had made 

 practically Jio roots since the day they 

 were put in. 



Banksia for the Yellow Class. 



The Banksia rose ought theoretically 

 to be the ideal stock, as it is practically 

 evergreen. This surely ought to suit 

 our friends who rave about the Man- 

 etti not being the proper stock to use 

 because it is not evergreen. However, 

 it is not evergreen stocks we are look- 

 ing for, but evergreen roses, on "any 

 old" stock, so long as we get the 

 blooms. 



But the Banksia has proved valuable 

 in our experience only in the case of 

 the yellow class. As before mentioned, 

 the Marechal Niel did fairly well on 

 it. Again, as far back as 1889, the 

 Waban Conservatories had a very fine 



Manetti the Successful Stock. 



Finally we come to the Manetti and 

 we can truly say that up to date this 

 has proved itself to be the thing for 

 nearly all roses grown under glass. 

 That it has not proved itself better 

 than the own roots with every variety 

 we must all admit, and also even that 

 in some exceptional localities it has 

 proven a failure, but I think it will be 

 found that where this is so the reason 

 lies in the soil. It is generally con- 

 ceded that the Manetti rose thrives in 

 light to medium coarse gravelly loam, 

 and is not seen at its very best in an 

 exceptionally heavy, fine-grained, sticky 

 or tenacious soil. The Manetti is a 

 comparatively shallow fibrous-rooting 

 rose. It has a voracious appetite and 

 will in most cases stand considerably 

 more feeding than roses on their own 

 roots. 



But, more than all this, the Manetti 

 seems to be absolutely free from the 

 attack of eel worms. This point alone 

 ought to make it very valuable to those 

 who are troubled with this pest^ because 

 roses grafted on the Manetti are prac- 

 tically insured against an attack of 

 club-root. We do not know why this 

 is so, and of course could not state 

 positively that under certain conditions 

 it would remain free from the dreaded 

 nematodes, but we do know that up to 

 the present time it has done so. 



An objection which has been made 

 against the use of roses grafted on the 

 Manetti is the fact that any check 

 during the late fall is liable to put the 

 plants to sleep for the winter, but we 

 all know that own-root roses are sub- 

 ject to the same defect if given half a 

 chance. So, as it is the growers' busi- 

 ness to see that they do not get a 

 check, it does seem as though such a 

 lame excuse as this ought not to fright- 

 en the wide-awake rosarian. 



A point in favor of using the Man- 

 etti is found in the case of roses which 



Typical Speci m ens of the English Manetti as Received in this Country. 

 (The picture shows the stocks a little more than ose- third natural size.) 



own-root plants, without going to the 

 trouble of grafting to get it. 



Experience With De la Grifferae. 



De Ta Grifferae has been tried with a 

 number of varieties. It is a vigorous 

 stock and makes a perfect union, the 

 finest, in fact, of any stock which we 

 have ever tried, but still it produces a 

 very inferior plant. Thinking perhaps 

 that it might prove the thing for the 

 yellow class — as, by the way, the Man- 



house of Perle des Jardins on this 

 stock and about that time Mr. Peter 

 Boll, of Maiden, had remarkable suc- 



our market does not take kindly to the 

 yellow sorts, we have not done any- 

 thing further in the way of experiment- 

 ing with this stock, but if anyone who 

 is growing some of the Perle class is 

 not satisfied with it on its own roots, 

 I would advise him strongly to try the 

 Banksia rose^as a stock for grafting. 



are difficult to propagate on their own 

 roots. Very often growers who have 

 failed almost completely to propagate 

 ^^rose h a v e s uoe eo d o d ^ r ea dily in gn 

 ing it on the Manetti. As a specific 

 example, I recall seeing growers who 

 could find no advantage in grafting 

 American Beauty other than the fact 

 that, having failed to get up a stock 

 of plants on their own roots, they had 

 succeeded in securing a fine lot on the 

 Manetti. 



