PART THREE
The Pros & Cons of purchasing grafted roses

Hello fellow rose-lovers! The 2003 rose season is pretty much over but I have some great stuff on order for next year. I hope to have the new availability up for viewing on our website during the first week in July. A paper copy of the rose list will be ready for pick-up from our storeroom by the middle of the month.

This article was supposed to be the final installment of the rose propagation series on grafting roses. Due to a lack of space and an even smaller personal knowledge of the technique I have decided to write about the pros and cons of purchasing grafted roses as compared to those grown on their own roots.

For those of you who may not be familiar with these terms I’ll briefly go over them. A grafted rose is a plant that has been created by inserting a piece of tissue from a desired rose into the trunk of a hardier rootstock rose. The roots of the hardier plant provide nutrients and energy to the desired rose and eventually the two fuse together. Roses that are labeled own-root are generally grown from seed, softwood cutting, or a method of layering.

There is great debate over whether one is better than the other. Personally, I find uses for both, and sit nicely on the fence in the middle. The following are some things to consider when choosing a rose for your yard.

• Price doesn’t seem to matter either way. Own-roots can be more expensive due to the extra time needed for the plant to grow into a saleable size. On the other hand, own-root roses can be cheaper because there isn’t the cost of the labor for the grafting.
 
• Own-root roses are better for areas with extreme cold. If the plant freezes back to the ground, generally they can re-sprout from below the soil surface. With grafted roses under these conditions, the desired rose can die completely leaving only the rootstock, which takes over.
 
• Roses grafted onto vigorous rootstock grow faster and become larger plants more quickly than those very same roses grown on their own roots. Different varieties of rootstock have different affects on grafts. Some roses become larger on their own root system, while other normally lanky, leggy plants are tamed to a friendlier size.
 
• Own-root roses generally live longer than grafted plants. An average life for a grafted plant is about twenty years before the grafted area runs out of room for any new shoots and the plant eventually chokes itself to death. The largest living rose in the U.S. is a Rosa banksiae ‘Alba’ (Lady Banks) in Tombstone, Arizona. It is nearly 150 years old and happens to be an own-root plant. It is said that a young Scottish bride planted the rose shortly after her arrival in 1855 to the mining camp of Tombstone, Arizona. Today, that very same plant is supported by an 8,000 square foot arbor.
 
• With grafted roses, you must constantly be on the look out for suckers. They are vigorous shoots of rootstock which sprout from below the graft. If left unattended, the rootstock can eventually overwhelm the desired plant, squeezing it out.
 
• Roses that have been grown from seed (which are extremely rare these days) will differ from the parent plant. Depending on which roses were used to pollinate the original plant, the difference can be like night and day. Not to mention, as with people, that no one is a perfect replica of their parent, nor identical to their siblings. Grafted roses have the same genetic makeup as the plant their grafting tissue was originally removed from.
 
• Last but not least, here is a little personal note. When choosing own-root versus grafted roses for the yard, I choose based on variety first. Generally, Hybrid Teas, Grandifloras and Floribundas just perform better when they are grafted. The growers go through the process of researching which rootstock will better suit the plant’s needs and ultimately they pass that vigorous plant on to you. But, if you’re interested in older, antique roses or even wild roses for your garden then try a few grown on their own roots. They’ll have a much longer life.

I hope this has shed some light on an often mind-boggling decision we face year after year. And remember to try some of both so you can make the best choice suited for your needs. Feel free to contact me for more information. Hope to see you next rose season!

This is the third article in a three part series on rose propagation techniques that began with the March/April issue.

–Cheri