Autumn is the best time to plant roses. Many of these prickly plants were grafted - that is, a particularly beautifully flowering but sensitive specimen was placed on a particularly resistant or strong-growing one - so that some inexperienced gardeners are now wondering: where to put the grafting site?
Knowing where the rose is grafted is important
Grafting place belongs underground
With grafted roses, the grafting point should always be buried at least five, better seven to ten centimeters deep in the ground. There are several reasons for this:
1. Grafting sites are particularly sensitive to frost damage and injury.
2. This is where roses “break” easily, so burying them can provide some protection.
3. Grafted roses tend to be very sensitive to frost and cold winter air, so burying the graft site provides basic winter protection - which can also be enhanced with soil mounding.
4. Grafted roses often only show weak growth. With a bit of luck, roots will sprout from the grafting area over time, so that at some point the hybrid tea will literally “stand on its own two feet”.
Exception: rose stems and wild roses
Only with rose stems should you not dig the grafting point into the ground. In this case, you would have to sink the entire trunk, because the thickening is located directly below the crown. However, you can winter stem roses that are still young and sufficiently flexible by pressing down the crown and burying it together with the grafting point.
How do you recognize the finishing point?
With roses (with the exception of standard roses), the grafting point is always just above the roots. This is a thickening above which all shoots sprout - ideally at least. Shoots that grow below this knob are usually wild shoots (i.e. they come from the rootstock) and are therefore not desirable.
Protect grafting site
The graft site should be protected not only by burial but also in other ways. This protection is particularly important in winter, which is why roses should always be piled up. This warming earth cover is at best covered with fir brushwood, which serves both protection and aesthetics. After all, who likes to stare at bare heaps of earth for months at a time?
tips
If you are unsure about the distinction between noble and wild shoots, the following rule of thumb will help you: Hybrid tea roses always have five leaves on a shoot, while most wild roses used as a rootstock have six to seven.