"Franz Heymann" wrote in message
...

"Douglas" wrote in message
...

"Rodger Whitlock" wrote in message
...
gOn Tue, 6 Jul 2004 08:28:14 +0000 (UTC), Franz Heymann wrote:

The time for taking summer cuttings is approaching. This raises
the
perennial questions which bother me at this time of the year:

Is the shelf life of last year's purchase of "Strike" powder
long
enough for me to risk using it again this year?

I think I've read that the active ingredient decomposes fairly
quickly and that you should buy fresh powder annually. Do I
myself do this? No.

I've also read commments (perhaps here in urg) that for most
plants, rooting hormones are an irrelevancy, so the potency or
impotency of one's hormone powder is also irrelevant.

Still, I use the stuff just in case, but as time goes on my
methods become more and more primitive. Right now I've got rose
cuttings underway, powdered and dibbled directly into the soil
with a glass jar over them, just like grandma used to do.

******

They'll grow, - but the purists don't like them.

Hard luck on the purists. I have grown roses satisfactorily from
cuttings for years and years. My impression is that the trade uses
budding mainly because they can get a larger number of offspring from
one stock plant that way.

[snip]

Franz
******
In friendy spirit,
I have to disagree. Budding and grafting usually puts three scions on to one
rootstock and done properly they all prosper and form an acceptable show of
branches from which the usual bush develops. You therefore have control over
the plant and that control derives from the rootstock characteristics, one
of which is of course 'dwarfing'.
This is especially important for fruit trees because the rootstock
determines the ultimate growth and therefore the fruiting possibilities.
For fruiting we have to have at first the flowers for the usual pollination
which governs the harvest in the final event. Of course judicious and
correct pruning at the two proper seasons contributes in no small manner.
I have found that simply sticking a rose cutting into soil may certainly
cause it to take root, but the bush tends to go a bit wild and straggly no
matter how it is pruned.
It's a question of control and I can explain it better by saying that I have
many roses, but I can illustrate my thinking by saying that I have different
types of rose plants,.
1. Small hybrid T types.
2. Floribundas.
3. Ramblers.
4. Climbers.
5, Standards.
6. Tree Rose. A rose Tree about twelve feet high, on one bole (or trunk) and
a large spread of branches
which at the moment are ablaze with about a hundred large rose flowers.
All have been budded or grafted.
The point here is that the scions are attached at different heights, the HT
at about four inches up the rootstock, the standards at about a yard up and
the tree at 12 feet up on the top of the stock (bole or trunk).
By using simple cuttings you are restricted to only one style of rose bush
or tree.
Rootstocks also seem to ensure much vigour for a longer time, in my opinion,
if the pruning is carried out correctly.
Doug.