180 



CASSELL'S POPULAR GAEDENING. 



and when found, not only make a note of them, but 

 fix, and propagate, and so perpetuate them, to the 

 enhancement of youi' pleasui^e and the enrichment of 

 your Rose garden. 



PROPAGATION BY BVDS. 

 This is the best method that has yet been de^dsed 

 for the rapid and sure multiplication of existing 

 varieties. Expert grafters may challenge this state- 

 ment, but they cannot disprove it. True, the per- 

 centage of takes in grafting may be as high as the 

 takes in budding. They may reach as high as 

 95 per cent, in either budding or grafting, though 

 such successes are rare; but then the majority of 

 scions either have or have had at least two, and often 

 more buds ; and, therefore, one or more plants in 

 embryo are wasted in most of the modes of graftiag 

 in vogue for Roses. 



Twofold Character of Propagation by 

 Buds. — It may surprise some who have budded 

 many Roses to hear that, whUe Roses are taken on by 

 briars or other Roses, the buds may also be rooted 

 into the soil. Budding Roses, however, as generally 

 understood and practised, consists in so fixing the 

 buds of a Rose into another plant, that the former 

 shall form the head, and utilise the root-force or 

 power, of the other. The foster-mother takes the 

 strange bud in or on, and these two become one life 

 or living Rose. Rose-budding is so generally prac- 

 tised and so well understood, that only practical de- 

 tails need be given here, especially as the art of 

 budding in every possible way will be exhaustively 

 treated under Propagation. A brief description, 

 however, and a few diagrams will make the matter 

 clear to the merest tyi'O in Rose- growing. 



Conditions of Success in Budding. — First, 

 as to the stock. It must be a Rose or some plant 

 nearly related to the Rose. All attempts to reach 

 to permanent and lasting success through bud- 

 ding Roses on White-thorns or other plants have 

 failed. Possibly they have been far less tried 

 than the fancies of poets would make us believe. 

 Rose-buds will take freely on all other Roses 

 and briars of all sorts — the Sweet-briar, however, 

 proving a very indifferent stock for any sort of 

 Rose. 



State of the Stock.— As free growth in the 

 stock is needful to enable the bark to separate 

 freely from the young wood beneath, it may be 

 called one of the essential mechanical conditions ^to 

 successful budding. It is probably, however, equally 

 or more important on vital grounds. The mo\dng 

 sap, provided the current is neither too full nor 



strong, carries healing to the wound, and the healing 

 unites the bud to the stock. 



Bud before leafage, and the bud is either washed 

 off, as it is called, drowned out, or decomposed. This 

 is easily proved by experiment. Budding before 

 leaves appear fails as a rule. In the absence of leaves 

 the healing processes are so slow or so completely 

 arrested that the buds are too often left to perish. 

 The selfsame buds inserted by the same agents, in 

 the same way, a few weeks later, succeed. There 

 is a period or stage of growth most favourable to 

 the taking of buds, that is, within a month or six 

 weeks or so after the full development of the leaves. 

 To bud earlier in%dtes failure ; to bud much later in 

 a workmanlike manner is impossible. Later on the 

 bark is bound so firmly to the young wood, against 

 its inner surface, that the two become inseparable by 

 any easy or fair means owing to the gradual con- 

 sohdation of the tissues. 



Condition of Buds most Favourable for 

 Propagation. — They should be plump and well 

 matured, rather than merely large. Buds from 

 flowering shoots, rather than from gourmands or 

 rank-growing shoots, should be chosen ; round-formed 

 buds are also far preferable to the long ones, how- 

 ever large. These mature buds have a reserve of food 

 and vital force within them, that 

 enables them to bridge over the brief |^ 

 interregnum of isolation before the 

 stock takes them on without serious 

 loss. More than this, they contribute 

 towards the union of themselves 

 with the stock. Meagre buds are 

 like ill-assorted marriages, where the 

 love is all on one side. They are 

 simply taken in or on by the stocks, 

 or they perish. Plump, well-filled 

 buds, on the contrary, contribute 

 their share to the process of union. 



The buds should be dormant. 

 True, started or growing buds are 

 sometimes used, and if skilfully in- 

 serted, and circumstances of weather, 

 Szc, are favourable, they take well. 

 But to bud with growing buds is to 

 vastly increase the difficulties of 

 budding, and multiply the chances 

 of failure. Dormant buds, full of 

 vital force and energy, just on the 

 point of stai'ting but yet not growing, 

 are the very best for budding. They should, as 

 far as maturity goes, be in advance of the stock, 

 or behind, according as it is ^'iewed. The cm-- 

 rent year's wood that furnishes the best buds for 

 budding will, however, as a rule, be more maturo 



riar. 10.— Eose- 

 brauch pre- 

 pared for 

 Budding-, 

 and one Bud 

 Eemoved. 



