How to graft a rose onto a rosehip trunk in summer or autumn? Several methods of plant grafting are known. As practice has shown, the simplest and most effective is budding with an eye. A dormant rose bud is grafted onto the trunk of a growing two-year-old rose hip from late July to September. With this method of vaccination, the result is immediately visible. If the kidney does not take root, budding can be done again.
What is it for?
A rose grown from a cutting and having its own roots, purchased at a garden store, can be planted in a flower bed in the spring. It will bloom all summer, but may not survive until the next season. After all, most hybrid varieties are not adapted to harsh winters. Self-rooted roses often disappear in the first years of life. In frosty winters, young seedlings sometimes freeze, however, thanks to dormant buds, they sometimes recover in the spring.
If you graft a rose onto a rose hip, the viability of the plant will increase. The grafted flower is not afraid of winter cold, disease, unfavorable weather conditions (rain, drought) in the summer season.
Advantages and disadvantages of the method
Advantages of grafting roses onto rose hips:
- the frost resistance of the flower increases;
- immunity and resistance to many types of diseases increases;
- the plant adapts more easily to any weather conditions;
- The rose begins to bloom faster.
Disadvantages of the method:
- Rose hips used as a rootstock can produce shoots;
- The scion and rootstock may not grow together on the first try.
Types of roses and rose hips used for budding
The rose is grafted onto a rose hip so that the scion is enhanced by the beneficial qualities of the rootstock. For vaccination, wild varieties of rose hips (May or dog) are taken. The rootstock must have good immunity, increased resistance to frost, drought, waterlogging, and a low tendency to form root shoots.
As a scion, you can take roses of the following varieties: hybrid tea, climbing, semi-climbing, bush, floribunda, polyantha, grandiflora. The eyes of roses are grafted onto the root collar of a rose hip. In this case, a frost-resistant bush is obtained. You can graft it onto a rosehip trunk. The result will be a standard, that is, a tree on a high leg with a lush crown at the top.
When to graft a rose onto a rosehip
It is better to do the sleeping eye vaccination in the summer. The buds on roses are ready for budding from the end of July, all of August, until September, that is, immediately after the roses bloom. In summer, plant juices move intensively, so the rootstock and scion will grow together faster. You can get vaccinated in early spring. In this case, it is not a dormant, but a germinating rose bud that is taken, which will immediately begin to grow.
Rules for choosing a rootstock
Rose hips intended for rootstock are grown in advance. He must be 2 years old at the time of vaccination. Rosehips are harvested in the fall, and the seeds are immediately sown in the ground to a depth of 5 centimeters to form a long root collar. The following spring the shoots sprout.
At the beginning of summer, they pinch the top so that a strong root system is formed.
Once a month the bushes are fed with minerals. Before frost they are mulched with humus. After 2 years, in mid-summer, the seedlings are ready for budding. At this point, the thickness of the root collar should be 4 millimeters. If the neck thickness is 8 millimeters, then such seedlings are not budded, but used for grafting with cuttings. It is done at the end of autumn.
Two weeks before budding, the rootstock is prepared with an eye. It is regularly watered, as a result of which the cambium is saturated with moisture and the bark is well separated.
Scion preparation
If the grafting is done in the summer, then choose roses that have already bloomed. On the day of budding, cuttings are prepared from which dormant eyes are taken. They are cut from the middle of the woody stem of the selected variety. Young, one-year-old branches on which flowers have not yet bloomed are not suitable for budding.
The scutellum with the dormant bud is cut off with a special knife.The leaf is cut off, leaving a stalk that you can hold on to during budding. The bark and bud should remain on the shield.
Grafting process
How to properly do budding (sleeping eye grafting):
- budding is carried out from the end of July to September;
- rake away the soil from the rose hip bush and free the root collar;
- wipe the neck with a cloth and make a T-shaped cut on it;
- the bark on the rosehip is separated from the wood and immediately pressed back so that the cambium does not oxidize;
- a rose eye, similar to a shield consisting of bark and a bud, is inserted inside the cut, and the wood is removed from the shield;
- The scion is pressed tightly to the rootstock and wrapped with tape;
- The grafted plant is covered with moist soil, not reaching the grafting site, so that the bud does not dry out, but does not become dirty.
After 2-3 weeks, the vaccination result is checked. The grafted bud should remain green and even enlarge slightly. The petiole left on the eye should fall off when touched. The bandage on the graft that has taken root can be loosened.
In November, the grafted plant should be sprinkled high with soil and insulated. Next spring, the bandage can be completely removed, and the upper part of the rose hip can be cut down to the grafted eye. The wound must be covered with garden varnish.
Specifics of grafting standard roses
For grafting standard roses, dog rose or wrinkled rose hips are used. A shrub 2 years old is suitable for the rootstock. One, strongest, erect trunk is taken from the rosehip. Its height should be 1.5 meters.
Budding is done not on the root collar, but on the rosehip trunk. Short standard rose bush it turns out if the peephole is inserted into the trunk at a height of 80 centimeters, the middle one is 1.2 meters, and the high one is when budding at a height of 1.5 meters.
The vaccination is done with 2-4 kidneys at once. They are inserted into the rosehip bark from different sides. The side branches of the bush are removed. For a tall bole, climbing and semi-climbing roses are suitable, for a medium bole - hybrid tea, floribunda, polyanthus, for a low bole - low-growing varieties. During grafting, a T-shaped incision is made on the rosehip bark. A rose eye is inserted into it. The grafting site is wrapped with tape or bandage. The kidney itself is left open.
After 2 weeks you can check the condition of the eye. If the bud turns black, the grafting has failed. If the eye is alive, green, and swollen, it means that the budding was carried out correctly. This vaccination is usually done in the summer (from late July to September). A dormant rose bud is inserted into the rosehip bark. For the winter, the grafting site is insulated and wrapped in burlap.
In the spring, the bud is opened, and the rosehip branches above the grafted eye are cut off with pruning shears. The wounds are covered with garden varnish. Shoots grow from the eyes grafted onto the rose hips. Over time, the branches need to be pinched to stimulate the growth of lateral shoots. Throughout the summer, the root shoots around the rose hips must be constantly removed.
When the trunk grows, it can be tied to a support so that the plant does not bend towards the ground under the weight of the branches.
Plant care after grafting
After grafting, the bud grafted to the root collar is not touched. The scion must grow together with the rootstock. The main thing is that no soil gets into the grafted area, otherwise the bud will not take root. Usually the rose eye grows together with the rose hips in 2-3 weeks. At the end of autumn, the grafted plant is mounded high with earth and covered with dry leaves. Insulated rosehip tolerates winter well.
In the spring, closer to May, the bandage is removed from the grafted area, and the rose hip bush is cut down to the bud (a centimeter above the eye).The wound is treated with garden varnish. After 2-3 weeks the bud sprouts. In summer, grown shoots are pinched to form a branched crown.
If the weather is dry, the grafted plant should be watered sparingly. At the beginning of the growing season, the rose can be fed with organic matter or nitrogen supplements. In summer, the plant is fertilized with potassium and phosphorus. The grafted rose is protected from diseases and insects, sprayed with fungicides and insecticides.
Throughout the summer, the ground around the plant needs to be loosened, weeds pulled, and sprouting shoots removed. By autumn, 3-5 skeletal branches should form on the young bush. Closer to winter it can be insulated. Next summer the rose will bloom.
Tips and mistakes of flower growers
It is better to do eye grafting in the summer, on a growing live rose hip. After 2-3 weeks, you can check the survival rate of the eye. Rose cuttings are prepared on the day of grafting. If the procedure had to be postponed for some reason, the branches can be wrapped in a damp cloth and placed in the refrigerator. In this state they can be stored for two weeks.
