CHAPTER VII 



STOCKS 



Roses are not generally grown on their own roots, but 

 " worked," that is, budded or grafted, upon other more 

 free-growing sorts. This is done, firstly, to save time : 

 a plant in its full strength, capable of giving the finest 

 flowers, can be obtained much quicker by budding the 

 Rose on the wild stock, as it thereby gets at once the 

 full benefit of the strong roots of the briar, and often 

 yields the best blooms the first year after budding. In 

 the propagation of new Roses, where it is required to 

 raise as large a number of plants as possible for the 

 following season, nurserymen are often able, by com- 

 mencing in the winter under glass, to raise three genera- 

 tions in one year. 



And, secondly, Roses are not grown on their own roots, 

 simply because the very large majority of them do not 

 either grow or flower so well when thus treated, as when 

 worked on suitable, stocks. I have four plants of 

 Marechal Niel in a row against a wooden fence, where 

 they have been about six years. Two of these I raised 

 from cuttings, and they are therefore on their own roots, 

 and two I budded on briar-cutting stocks. Either of the 

 budded plants is bigger than the two on their own roots 

 put together, and affords three times as many flowers. 



