Reprinted from The Australian and New Zealand Rose Annual, 1964

By P. B. Edwards, Burnie, Tasmania.

Growing your own bush roses by budding appears easy when you read how it is done. It is easy, too, but it can be very frustrating if you don’t live near an expert to whom you can turn for those elementary hints that don’t seem to appear in any literature. I had to use the “sink or swim” method, learning from my mistakes a few things that may be helpful to other beginners. 

First, find a rootstock that does well in your area. I found a stock (R. indica major) that does well in Burnie, growing from an Astrée bush. Apparently a nurseryman’s oversight left a bud underground. If you can’t find such a bud, you may have to appeal to a rosegrowing friend elsewhere. Plant eight inch cuttings in April-May with all buds intact as for normal rose cuttings, and in twelve months one or two plants will give you all the cutting stocks you require.

Preparation of cutting stocks for planting in April-May is straight-forward, but planting is a different matter. Do not plant them vertically with only an inch or so above the ground. If you do, at budding time you will be scrabbling at ground level with a quickly aching back and rising blood pressure and will feel like giving the game away. They will be much easier to work if you plant them twelve inches apart at about 30 degrees to the vertical with about three inches of their length above ground. They will strike satisfactorily if you keep them moist, using a mulch or flat stones as a cover.

The earlier budding can be started the better, so as to get strong plants by winter, but stocks and buds must be in good condition. December is a suitable time to begin, and budding may be continued if necessary to the end of February. Some of the later buddings may not grow until early spring when they will generally get away vigorously. 

A razor-sharp knife and plenty of practice before starting actual operations are needed for preparing bud shields. There are several methods described for removing the wood sliver taken with the bud and bark, but I have only been able to get results as follows. Separate the bark at the top of the shield with thumbnail or knife and then pull the sliver slowly but firmly with the point of grip moving parallel with and close to the shield and moving towards the bottom of the shield so that the sliver bends 180 degrees. If you tear out the bud, try again. If you leave a small shred of wood adhering to the bud, it doesn’t matter. If you leave a large piece of wood below the bud, try to get most of it out with the knife, without damaging the bud.

Now come the two most important operations. Cut off the top of the prepared shield cleanly and transversely, getting as wide a cut as possible, make the T cut in the stock, insert the shield, and make sure you push the shield upwards so that there is intimate line contact between the transverse cuts in the shield and the bark. This is essential as this is where the union begins. Then bind the shield firmly into the stock from half an inch below and above the T cut to exclude air and moisture and to get all possible intimate contact. I use about ten inches of half-inch wide polythene budding tape. This has good resistance to air and moisture transmission and, as it has the great advantage of stretching as the stock grows, it does not strangle the bud and need not be removed until transplanting time. 

In three to four weeks’ time the bud should be growing and when it is about one-quarter inch long, cut off the head of the stock just above the tie. If it is dead, take off the tie and rebud lower down the stock at 90 degrees to the first attempt. If the second attempt fails, try a third time on the opposite side. If a bud fails to grow on after cutting off the head, do not discard the stock, as buds will still take on it for weeks. The rest of it is common sense.  Surround your stocks with wire netting to prevent damage by cats, dogs, and the rest of the family, water well each week, tie the growing shoots to sticks, and spray when necessary.

Growing a dozen or so roses in this manner takes very little time and it gives much pleasure and satisfaction to know that you were in at the birth of the roses that you are admiring, cutting, or showing. The next step for the beginner is to raise roses from seed and then to bud the promising ones. But that is another story.