Make your own grafted roses with T-budding. Step by step pictures

16 years ago

I saw Ann's post about propagating roses with this link:

http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/propagation/budding/budding.html

I have propagated roses this way during the last 7 years. It is the most common way of producing roses here in Europe. Own root roses are very rare here.

It is most helpful for beginners to see a step by step picture guide about how to do this:

1) Propagate rootstock: use Rosa Multiflora, Rosa Laxa, Rosa Fortuniana cuttings and root plenty of these in trays. Use a rooting powder. After 10 weeks I plant the rooted multiflora cuttings in my former vegetable garden. The rooted cuttings are planted about 10 inches apart in rows and kept well watered. In the spring next year I prune the multiflora roses hard and in July or early August the root stocks are ready to be budded with the cultivar you want to propagate:

2) The canes of the multiflora roses are bent sidewards by a

board and I scrape the soil away exposing the top part of the rooted roses. The top part of the roses are washed clean with a wetted cloth:

3) From one of the canes of the cultivar you want to propagate you make an upward cut just below the bud-eye and under the bud:(Use a budding knife or a scalpel):

4) Tear the cutted bud-eye away from the cane with a piece of the bark:

5) Remove the pith on the inner side of the bud-shield with the knife.

6) Your budeye is ready:

7) Make a horizontal cut in the bark about 1 inch below the part of the root neck from where the canes grow.

8) Make a vertical cut from the middle of the horizontal, extending about an inch downwards. You have now made a T-shaped cut in the bark:

9) Gently push the bark to one the sides with the knife opening the T-shaped slit:

10) Insert the budeye-shield into the slit:

11) cut the top part of the shield bark away

12) The budeye inserted into place in the T-shaped slit:

13) The T-budded eye graft is covered with budding tape and secured with a metal clip:

14: Rows of grafted roses:

15) After 6 weeks in colder areas probably in climate zones less than 8, I mound soil up about 2-3 inches to protect the graft from frost. In early spring after the snow is gone and the new growth is starting, I cut the top part of the multiflora rootstock away a little less than an inch above the graft. The budding tape will be gone by then (decomposed) and basals will sprout from the bud (making the scion).

In warmer zones with barely any winter I think they cut the top part of the rootstock after about 6 weeks.

Some tips.

It is possible to buy rooted rootstocks in bundles. that is easier than making them yourself. Use the right Rootstock for your area (climate zone and soil type). If you plant them early this year you can graft already later this year.

Practice step 3-5! Use some canes from the summer pruning.

Do not allow the back of bud-shield or the T-shaped cut in root necks to become dirty or to dry out. Step 3-13 takes less than 20 seconds with some training. So practice!! My succes rate in the beginning was 3-4 out of 10. Now it is 7-8 out of 10.

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Comments (15)

karl_bapst_rosenut
16 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Great, easy to see and follow instructions. Better and clearer that a cartoon.
hoovb zone 9 sunset 23
16 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Wonderful information. Thank you! I must try this with all my Dr Huey sprouts.
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chuck_billie
16 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Great information and couldn't be more clear.
Also a good idea to practice on Dr. Huey suckers.
Thanks for sharing that with us.
Chuck
Hepatica
16 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Wow!

Thank so much for sharing great information!!

I have been wondering how to graft roses, your instruction is the best tutorial that I have ever seen.

Thanks!!
moodyblue
16 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Thanks Cup, this is brilliant. I have saved it!
Luv P.
riku
16 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Excellent and thanks for taking the effort to share the photos. Next to being there, nothing beats seeing it done from pictures and transferring the small but important pointers within the broader steps of the methodology.
berndoodle
16 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Interesting. We de-eye the cane and bud to the cane instead of to the root shank. This looks like a better plan where roses don't need that shank to protect the scion from nematodes.
berndoodle
16 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
I forgot to mention that those look like seedlings.

I'm intrigued that you bud the same way, to the shank of the root rather than to the cane, with cutting-grown rootstocks.

Thanks, Niels. I've though about using the multiflora (hybrid musk) seedlings that sprout up all over my garden as rootstocks. They all have that carrot root.

--
Cass
cupshaped_roses
Original Author
16 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
I really hope some will be encouraged to try to propagate roses, now they can see it really is not that hard. And I really want to stress that it is very important to choose the right rose for the root stocks (I think it has become very clear that different root stocks do better in different parts of America or even Europe. I do prefer either R. Multiflora or Rosa Laxa. While some in Florida and other places might do better with R. Fortuniana or Dr. Huey.
And Cass you are right! These rootstock are seedlings! But I am not sure that many will have the patience the raise these first, when it so much easier to root the cuttings. We live in a rose wonderland here since we have a very large rose production and many nurseries and access to so many thousands cultivars. We are always not very far from a nursery that sell rootstocks (a bundle with 100 (seedgrown) rootstocks cost about $) and I use about 200 myself every year, to propagate and exchange rare roses or roses that are simply very hard to get. In July here we send rose canes all over in damp newspaper and Plastic bags, to other rose-enthusiasts and nurseries and use the canes as "budwood".
Many will however find it easier to use root-stocks grown from cuttings, since that is what they have available. Do use your seedlings if you have any.

I am not sure we have the same nematodes here Cass. We do have some but we always bury the Scion at least 3-4 inches under soil level to protect from frost. In areas without harsh winters it seems to be more common to plant the rose with the scion in the surface or even above soil level.
mydream
16 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Cupshaped roses:
Many thanks for your time in doing this "how to" for us.
Great information!
A couple of years ago I tried propogating some of my roses and to my surprise some of them grew. :)
Thank you for the information.
I'm going to to see if I can find my rose pictures.

Here is a link that might be useful: http://homes-n-gardens.com/
harryshoe zone6 eastern Pennsylvania
16 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Cupshaped,
That was great. Thanks.

Harry
berndoodle
16 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Niels, the reason seedlings are preferable, in my view, is that they produce much larger roots in the same amount of time, and they have far better odds of being RMV-free.

I've noticed with seedlings in my own garden that a small plant with top growth of 1 foot/30 cm. can have a root shank the size of my thumb and 1 foot long.

Lovely illustrations.
duchesse_nalabama
16 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Thank you so much for the info. and pictures. I'm saving it for reference.
sautesmom Sacramento
16 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Has anyone ever tried grafting buds from cut roses bought at a florist/store?? Sometimes I have a dozen cut roses that are so beautiful it would be nice to grow my own. Are cut roses alive enough for grafting?

Carla in Sac
mendocino_rose
16 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Thanks for taking the time to help folks with this. I keep meaning to try grafting but never have. At the recent conference that some of us attended in California we saw a demonstration of chip grafting from Burleng of Sequoia nursery.