THE KOSE AND ITS CTJLTTJEE. 



213 



The Potting up of Old G-row^ing Stocks 

 for a Year before Grafting. — This is, no doutt, 

 the safer practice ; and thus having them under com- 

 plete control, they may be placed in warmth and got 

 into that exact state and condition most favourable 

 to promoting a speedy union -with the scion. 



Best Stocks. — Among the conflicting claims of 

 seedling briars, briar-cuttings, briar-roots, Manetti, 

 De la Grifferaie, Boursault, Banksian, and others, 

 it may seem presumptuous to decide. And yet there 

 is little doubt that the Manetti, briar-cuttings, 

 seedling briars, and the standard briars, form the 

 best of all stocks on which to graft Eoses. (See 

 previous chapter on Stocks.) 



Of late years the seedliug briar has had almost a 

 monopoly for some classes of Eoses ; Teas especially 

 have been held to bloom more freely on these than 

 on any other. And no doubt they are most useful, 

 especially for whip grafting, in which the scion and 

 the stock should be of equal diameters. The writer 

 has also been very successful on the roots of the Dog- 

 rose. These were dug up, cut into six-inch lengths, 

 placed in bottom heat, and grafted about three 

 weeks afterwards ; and ninety per • cent, grew, and 

 did well. 



Condition of Scion. — The scion should be 

 dormant, and at least a fortnight behind the stock 

 in regard to its vital condition. Nothing is more 

 fruitful of failures in grafting Eoses than the use 

 of scions already bursting into leafage. These 

 leaves and embryo shoots axe either withered 

 up before the union takes place that would send 

 forth supplies to preserve them, or they exhaust the 

 scion of those fluids that could have united it to the 

 stock. The dormant scion avoids both these dangers, 

 its buds moving little, or not at all, till the union 

 is partially completed, at which, stage the action of 

 the leafage becomes a powerful auxiliary in cement- 

 ing the union of the scion with the stock. 



Ripe Wood as Essential for Scion as 

 Dormancy. — Eipeuess, firmness, a certain degree 

 of solidity, are needful to sustain the life of the 

 scion during its interregnum of separation from all 

 other sources of life but itself. Hence the bases of 

 Eose and other shoots are best for scions as well as 

 cuttings. The tops are soft, spongy, and full of 

 watery sap, and should never be chosen for scions. 

 The sun and air soon dry up the juices, and wither 

 up the bud, rendering the growth or taking of the 

 scion impossible. 



Length, of Scion. — This is of comparatively 

 little moment, although, of course, within certain 



limits, the longer the scion, the greater the risk 

 of failure. Neither is there any advantage in 

 having scions too long, from four to seven inches 

 being mostly long enough. The actual length 

 is, however, very much determined by the distance 

 between the Eose-buds, and this varies greatly. 

 Two buds on the head of the scion, and one 

 somewhere in the length, or at the base of the 

 uniting part of the scion with the stock, will mostly 

 be found sufficient ; the reason for cutting through 

 a biid on the uniting parts is that a larger amount 

 of nutriment, and a fuller development of growing 

 tissues, are to be found in close proximity to 

 the buds, and hence, when the bud is removed or 

 suppressed in tying, this living, binding force finds 

 expression in hastening the union between the 

 scion and the stock. 



Time and Place to Graft. — January and 

 February are the best indoors, March and April out- 

 side. The latter, however, is scarcely ever practised, 

 unless in the case of grafting standards, a practice 

 almost wholly superseded by budding. StiU, when 

 and where the grafting of briars in the open succeeds 

 well, almost a year's start is gained over budded 

 Eoses. 



But grafting in the open air is rather precarious, 

 and as grafted Eoses are seldom so long-lived as 

 budded ones, the two woods often refusing to blend 

 into one durable healthy plant, this method of graft- 

 ing is but little practised. 



DifiFerent Modes of Grafting Almost 



any of the methods of grafting to be set forth 

 in our articles on Propagation may be used for 

 Eoses. Yet it is found that different methods are 

 best adapted for different species of plants, and only 

 three of them are much used in the propagation 

 of Eoses. These are whip or splice, cleft, and crown 

 grafting. The first and the last are the best, though 

 cleft grafting with the modification of it called 

 saddle grafting are also used. 



Whip or Splice Grafting. — These terms almost 

 explain themselves. In tying the two fragments 

 of a whip or cord together, the union is called 

 a splice, and it is thus performed: — Each of the 

 two fragments is reduced to one-half of its 

 diameter along a, distance of, say, three or four 

 inches, the ends of each part terminating in a thin 

 wedge ; the two are then firmly bound together, and 

 the whip or cord is made as strong as it was before. 

 Of course, the splice is most perfect when the two 

 pieces are of the same diameter. This is a mechanical 

 splice. In grafting, our ultimate object is to force 

 nature into making a vital splice between the parts. 



Our first steps, however, consist in the equal 



