The grafting of roses is not only reserved for professionals. What sounds complicated can be done by anyone with a little effort and the right tools.
Magnificently blooming roses in the front yard are not only an eye-catcher for the hobby gardener himself. The neighbors also like to stop and ask themselves which special variety is blooming in your home. Now you can proudly say that you grafted this rose yourself. That makes you proud doesn't it?
Unfortunately there is still a long way to go until then. Breeding your own creation takes a while and requires a lot of finesse.
Usually only real professionals do the finishing. But if you have a reasonably green thumb, you are welcome to try it yourself and enjoy the result. It is only forbidden to sell the grafted plant without a license.
The right tool for finishing
A chef cannot conjure up a decent meal without the right utensils. The same is true of finishing. Only with the right tool can you be sure that the propagation of the roses works perfectly.
The grafting knife is an indispensable tool when grafting. This knife has a straight blade with a rounded tip, which is used specifically for oculation (refinement). For example, you can get the grafting knife from Victorinox (picture on the right) at Amazon.
This knife with two blades has the advantage that you can also use it for grafting fruit trees. So if you're having success with rose grafting, why not try your hand at fruit trees as well. You can find detailed instructions here.
Select roses for grafting
To graft roses, you need of course two different roses.
Wild Rose
First you need a wild rose. This forms the basis for the new breed. In contrast to Hybrid Tea roses, wild roses have the great advantage that they have strong growing roots and are therefore not as susceptible to diseases and pests.
Hybrid Tea
On the other hand, of course, you need a rose with a plumpFlower splendor that you like. You can find a wonderful selection of magnificently blooming roses at garten-schlueter.de, for example. This company has specialized in rose culture for many years and can even provide you with rare rose specimens.
The best time for grafting is August. Here the tea rose is in full bloom and the wild rose is also ready to be grafted if it was planted in spring or autumn. (Reading tip: Plant roses correctly)
Refining roses - 6 steps to the result
Step 1: Cut off the fresh branch
Take a fresh branch with faded flowers from the hybrid tea rose. Make sure, however, that there are at least five petals underneath the flower.
» Tip: The shoot is perfect for grafting when easily remove the spikes.
Step 2: Remove spines and leaves
Remove all leaves and thorns from the rose branch. But the leaf stalk has to stay put, because underneath are the eyes.
Step 3: Remove Eyes
Warning!!!
Make sure the tool is sterile. Just a whiff of pathogens can undo all the work.
The eyes are extremely important in breeding. Without these eyes not even an ennoblement would come about. So you need to do this step carefully and carefully.
Remove the thin green leaf stalk above the eyes. You can easily cancel this manually. Now the grafting knife is used. Place the knife a few millimeters above the eye and cut thinly vertically downwards. Then fold over the top piece of the eye and remove the piece of wood that resembles a fork. The remaining green piece is the eye, which is now placed in the wild rose.
Step 4: Clean wild rose
To prevent dirt from getting into the wound during grafting, the root neck of the wild rose must be sufficiently cleaned. So, first of all, expose this root collar and then clean the relevant collar with a cloth.
Step 5: Insert eye
After you have cleaned the root neck sufficiently, take the budding knife again. Now make a T-shaped incision in the root collar. Slightly unfold the ends and gently slide the eye into the pocket. You can easily cut off the protruding skin. Now fold the ends back togetherso that the eye is protected.
Step 6: Connect Grafting Site
So that no dirt collects in these openings in the beginning, it is advisable to fix the grafting point with a clean rubber band or a special rose rubber band.
Once grafting is complete, it will take until next spring for the first shoots to form. Shoots of the wild rose must then be cut off so that the rose only sprout from the grafting point. If wild shoots appear again and again, simply tear them off just below the surface. Do not prune, you will only encourage growth. (Reading tip: Roses in the garden - 9 tips for care)
The following video shows you exactly where you have to cut or separate something:
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