ROSE GRAFTING

Tools and materials
■ cutting from a rose rootstock
■ sharp knife
■ shears
■ semi-ripe shoot from rose cultivar
■ rubber band
■ pot and compost
■ plastic bag
1 Start hardwood cuttings, taken from one-year-old shoots of a rose rootstock, into growth in a warm greenhouse in midwinter. Remove the lower buds, then heel in to a soil bed (voice of the trees). Graft in spring, when semi-ripe shoots of the rose you want to propagate are available. Prepare the rootstock by culling it down to 6 in.
2 Make a single shallow, upward-slanting cultivar in. long at the lop of the rootstock, thereby exposing the plan! tissue responsible for healing (the cambium), which allows the slock to heal together.
3 In long from the rose cultivar you want. Remove all of the leaves apart from the uppermost one.
4 Make a single downward-slanting cut approximately half in. long on the bottom section of the scion, just behind a bud. This cut will expose the cambium.
5 Gently place the two sections of plant together, so that the cut surfaces match. then they arc correctly positioned, carefully bind I he graft with a rubber hand. This will hold the graft firmly until the two sections join.
6 Place the graft into a pot of compost. Water it well, cover with a plastic bag, and place on a warm windowsill. By The Garden of Eaden