Garden Plants Information

What do the terms grafting and budding mean?

Budding is a form of grafting. Grafting is the art of attaching a piece of one plant to another plant, creating a new plant. Grafting is usually done because the desired plant is extremely difficult if not impossible to propagate through other means. Dogwoods, for example, are easily grown from seed, however, it is next to impossible to grow a Pink Dogwood from seed. The seeds from a Pink Dogwood will produce seedlings that are likely to flower white.

The most common method for producing Pink Dogwood trees is to remove a single bud from a Pink Dogwood tree and slip it under the bark of a White Dogwood seedling. This process is known as budding, and the seedling is known as the rootstock. This is usually done during the late summer months when the bark of the White Dogwood seedling can be easily separated from the tree, and the seedling is about 1/4″ in diameter.

A very small “T” shaped cut is made in the bark only, and the bud is slipped in the slot. The actual bud itself is allowed to poke out through the opening and then the wound is wrapped with a rubber band both above and below the bud. By the following spring the bud will have grafted itself to the seedling, at which time the seedling is cut off just above the Pink Dogwood bud, and the bud then grows into a Pink Dogwood tree.

Budding is usually done at ground level, and often times the rootstock will send up shoots from below the bud union. These shoots, often called suckers, should be removed as soon as they appear because they are from the rootstock and are not the same variety as the rest of the plant. Flowering Crabapples are also budded and are notorious for producing suckers. When removing these suckers don’t just clip them off at ground level with pruning shears, they will just grow back. Pull back the soil or mulch and remove them from the tree completely at the point where they emerge from the stem.

Most people clip them off a couple of inches from the ground, and then they grow back with multiple shoots. This drives me crazy! Get down as low as you can and remove them completely and you will keep them under control. On older trees that have been improperly pruned for years I take a digging spade and literally attack these suckers hacking them away from the stem. Sure this does a little damage to the stem of the tree, but when a plant is let go like that I figure it’s a do or die situation. The trees always survive and thrive.

Other plants are grafted up high to create a weeping effect. One of the most popular trees that is grafted up high is the top graft Weeping Cherry. In this case the seedling is allowed to grow to a height of 5′, then the weeping variety is grafted on to the rootstock at a height of about 5′. This creates an umbrella type effect. In this case the graft union is 5′ off the ground, therefore anything that grows from the stem below that graft union must be removed.

Many people don’t understand this and before they know it they have a branch 2″ in diameter growing up through the weeping canopy of their tree. Before you know it there are several branches growing upright through the canopy and the effect of the plant is completely ruined.

At my website, http://gardening-articles.com I’ve got a couple of photos that show exactly what I’m talking about in this article. You can clearly see the weeping effect that the Weeping Cherry tree is supposed to have, but then up through the middle come these branches that are no more than just suckers from the stem, or the rootstock as it is known in the nursery industry.

Looking closely at the photos you can see that these suckers originate from below the graft union. This problem could have been prevented if someone had just picked off these buds when they first emerged on the stem of the tree. Then they would have never developed into branches.

This tree can still be saved, but there will be a large scar on the stem when the upright branches are pruned off. But under the canopy of the weeping tree these scars will never show.

Another interesting plant that is grafted is the Weeping Cotoneaster. In this case the seedling that is grown to serve as the rootstock is Paul’s Scarlet Hawthorn, and Cotoneaster Apiculata is grafted onto the Hawthorn rootstock at a height of 5′. Years ago a nurseryman found through experimentation that these two plants are actually compatible, and a beautiful and unique plant was created. I have one of these in my landscape and we love it.

Once again since the graft union is at 5′, any growth coming from the stem (rootstock) must be removed. In this case the growth coming from the rootstock will be Hawthorn and will look completely different from the Cotoneaster which is what the plant is supposed to be. The easiest way to keep up with this type of pruning is to keep an eye on your grafted plants when you’re in the yard. As soon as you see new growth coming from below the graft union, just pick it off with your fingernail.

If you catch these new buds when they first emerge, pruning them off is as easy as that. Walk around your yard and look for grafted or budded plants, and see if you can find any that have growth that doesn’t seem to match the rest of the plant. Look closely and you may find that the growth is coming from below a graft or bud union.

You are welcome to use this article on your website or in your newsletter as long as you reprint it as is, including the contact information at the end. Website URLs must be active links. You are welcome to use this article with an affiliate link, http://www.freeplants.com/resellers.htm

Michael J. McGroarty is the author of this article. Visit his most interesting website, http://www.freeplants.com and sign up for his excellent gardening newsletter. Article provided by http://gardening-articles.com

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Gardeners, small farmers and boutique backyard nurseries can attract customers with unusual tree, vine and bush fruit crops that offer customers a taste of the exotic, of history, or of their native bioregion that they can find nowhere else. The rare product can be their main crop, or a sideline.

A secret to attracting customers with unfamiliar crops (or with familiar exotics, such as olives, grown and processed in unfamiliar ways) seems to be letting the taste do the selling, and then generating repeat customers from that foundation. Letting customers in on the farm’s high quality growing and processing techniques is also a selling tool.

For example, a small organic olive farmer in California said he got his best results by getting the potential customer to taste the product. He explained that the quality is then so apparent that the higher price is usually a non-issue. This farmer also explained that they teach clients about how much differently they operate than mass produced growers creating cheap food. They explain their organic farming, rare heritage varieties, dry farming, hand picking, and manufacturing in small batches. This farmer and his family organically grow unusual olives such as Ascolano, Nicoise, Mission, Cornezuelo, Manzanillo, Sevillano, Barouni, Columella, Frantoio, Cornicabra, Rubra, French Picholine, and Saracena, and sell them as value-added products, including organic olive oil soap, and flavored organic extra virgin olive oils with names like Magical Mandarin, Rosemary Garlic, Meyer Lemon and Italian Stallion. Olives are cold pressed within hours of hand picking with a granite stone press. Very unusual. Plus, organically grown herbs, fruits and seasonings are added to produce the flavors. They sell mainly via their online catalogue and farmers’ market.

Other rare or unusually-produced fruit farmers allow u-picks or farm tours to allow potential customers to see the unusual fruits and experience them on a deeper level. And while “Mayhaws,” “Paw-paws,” and “Sea Buckthorn” are unusual fruits that are attracting customers, once again, so are the more ordinary fruits when processed in new ways. On my own Pacific Northwest island where apricots are not grown often, a family has developed a home business of making and selling regionally grown apricot syrup. They sell from their home, and to several local gift shops.

When selling unusual fruits at roadside stands or farmers’ markets, a description of its history and land of origin can draw much attention and interest. Community supported agriculture (CSA) farms offer surprise samples in their regular shares, describing the fruit in their newsletter. This serves as a novelty and makes the CSA farm feel special to the customers. If the fruit becomes very popular, it may eventually become a staple for which the CSA is known. Nurseries offer the fruit trees or shrubs as is, or will create grafted ‘fruit cocktail trees’ with several varieties of fruit on one tree. They also offer dwarf tropical or subtropical patio and indoor fruit trees. Farms that create value-added products from their crops create jams, jellies, syrups, fruit flavored baked and dairy goods, wines, and gift samplers with their exotic and unusual fruits. Growing an exotic fruit exclusively for a local independent restaurant or juice bar can establish an ongoing, guaranteed cash-paying customer, giving the food establishment a locally grown specialty.

(c) 2006 Barbara Adams

Barbara Adams
Author: Micro Eco-Farming: Prospering from Backyard to Small Acreage in Partnership with the Earth (New World Publishing)
http://www.MicroEcoFarming.com

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So often new gardeners are put off the idea of gardening by thinking about the time it might take, and the hard work involved. The popular idea of a low-maintenance garden is one of covering the space with decking and gravel, planted with a few grasses and pots of evergreens.

However, I have discovered an ideal way to help thwart one of the most time-consuming chores in the garden - that of weeding.

This came about almost by accident, as I have a cat who thinks that any uncovered ground is a glorious litter tray! I quickly had to find a way to cover up as much of the soil as possible, but soon realised that ground cover plants gave me the even greater benefit of vastly reducing the number of weeds.

Of course, there are many gardeners who enjoy the time spent weeding, and I admire them tremendously - there are great physical and mental benefits to spending time outdoors among your plants.

But for those of us whose time spent in the garden must be limited because of work commitments or perhaps physical limitations, there is a way to enjoy our plants with a minimum of fuss. Of course, time has to be spent on the initial ground preparation and planting, however, this would probably take far less time than laying decking and gravel!

Weeds are great survivors and they very quickly take over any bare patch of soil. Once they take hold they can very easily smother existing plants and become notoriously difficult to get rid of.

So the idea is to find plants that form dense clumps or spread via their roots to cover the ground. As with most plants, there are ground cover plants for each season when they are at their best, and some that look good all year round.

One word of caution. Because some of these plants spread quickly - which is of course what we want - they also don’t actually know when to stop! So you may need to cut them back occasionally to keep them within their allotted space.

What to plant?

I have discovered that plants such as bugle (ajuga) - you can get plants with purple, bronze or variegated foliage; euphorbia - with stunning acid-green flowers in early to late spring; lesser periwinkle (vinca minor); bergenias - commonly known as elephant’s ears; as well as small-leaved variegated ivies, all provide year round ground cover. Another advantage of these particular plants is that they are also slug and snail resistant!

In spring and summer, you can use aubretia, arabis, alyssum and candytuft (iberis), which all hug the ground. And particularly useful, and providing some height to a border, is aquilegia - the old-fashioned cottage garden variety - which after flowering retains its foliage in attractive clumps. They also self-seed prolifically, giving you extra plants each year.

Another favourite plant of mine is the hardy geranium. Some varieties do die down in the winter - weeds don’t grow much then anyway - but the plants soon romp away in spring and provide ground cover and masses of flowers all summer.

Other useful plants to use for ground cover are herbs. Among a wide variety to choose from are comfrey, feverfew, catmint, golden marjoram and mallow.

So there you have it! Once your ground cover plants are established, you’ll no longer have to spend hours on your knees, but can spend quality time in your garden.

Fran Barnwell is a self-taught gardener, learning through experience in her own garden. Fran understands the difficulties that face new gardeners, and has written The Ultimate Guide to Gardening for Beginners, a successful eBook that helps anyone new to gardening to get started, explaining the basics in easy to understand terms. To find out more and to sign up to receive a free series of articles, go to http://www.NewToGardening.com

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