News & Updates:
Like the website? |
BUD SELECTION - Part 1 |
|||
|
Having at hand understocks of good type and in condition fit for budding, buds
or eyes of the rose varieties to be propagated must be obtained. There is a bud
at the base of each leaf stem on young growth. On flower-stalks they are usually
in best condition soon after the petals have fallen. The thorns will then snap
off the branch when firmly pressed, leaving very little sap showing. Buds near
the tip of a flower-stalk
or climbing shoot are usually small and weak and may have already broken into growth. Those at the base are often immature. Only the plump well-developed buds between these extremes should be used. Immature buds are worth trying when there are insufficient good buds. If they take, they will need longer to shoot but will produce strong plants. Small weak buds are apt to give weak plants.
Buds should be sought only from strong plants and from strong branches that have given good blooms. The basis of good propagation is careful selection of both buds and stocks. Great diversity of growth habit is most often seen in novelties. The poorer plants are due to over-propagation. The demand is heavy and the supply limited. Then every available bud, good, bad, and indifferent, is frequently used. Often growth will be unusually good on just one part of one plant of a certain variety. This is actually a form of sport, but buds obtained from it will usually continue the improved type of growth in the whole of the new plant. This does not refer to watershoots in their first year of growth. In the case of climbing sports of roses that were originally dwarf in habit, it is essential that buds be taken from young climbing canes. Buds selected from bloom stems will usually give a reversion to the dwarf habit. This is not so in varieties that are normally climbers and not mutants. Prior to budding, the sap should be flowing freely in the stocks; this will be evident by the commencement of new growth. One or two heavy waterings may be necessary preliminaries. Sufficient growth should be cut away to permit working freely. As the wood bearing the buds is collected, the thorns should be clipped to make for easier handling. This wood can be kept for many days standing in water, buried in damp sand, or under a wet bag. It can be posted to distant parts if wrapped in damp paper, then in dry paper, then in a double layer of grease-proof paper, and finally in a dry wrapping. Damp sphagnum moss can be inserted with advantage under the grease-proof paper but must never be allowed in contact with the budding-wood. Bud-wood will keep for several months in a refrigerator provided the temperature is not quite down to freezing point and it is packed in an airtight container. This latter requirement is because the refrigerator dries the air to such an extent that the bud-wood shrivels. Maintenance of a steady moisture content is much more satisfactory than re-wetting the bud-wood from time to time. To bud a dwarf stock, take a sharp knife, preferably a budding knife, and make a horizontal cut about one-quarter of an inch long just under the lowest branch. From the centre of this cut make a downward cut about one and a quarter inches long. These two cuts are in the form of the letter T, and only deep enough to slit the bark without damaging the surface of the wood-the cambium. The two triangular flaps of bark at the sides of the vertical cut must be lifted gently. If the stock is in good condition this will be easy and the cambium will be slightly moist. Any difficulty will be due to the cut being insufficiently deep, or, more likely, to the stocks not being in good condition. In the latter case, thorough soaking will usually remedy the trouble within a week or ten days. |
