Hey, good morning, it's Jason from Fraser Valley Rose Farm, today
I want to talk to you about roses own-root roses versus grafted roses. Which one is better?
And this is not a brand new debate. In fact, it's been around so long. I found a book. This is
Hennessy on Roses published
1942 and he outlines almost all the same points I'll be talking about today. And what is that about?
Seventy-five years ago, so it's incredible that we've been talking on this topic for so long
But we haven't come to a full resolution and I guess that would indicate that there's points on both sides and I'll talk about that
Here, you might expect me to be a bit biased because I'm a producer of own-root roses
but I can think of at least a couple situations where grafted roses are just better but before I go into
Advantages and disadvantages here for some of you you might not know what the heck I'm talking about
What does it mean to talk about something being grafted versus own-root?
Okay, so roses and natures they've grown from seeds or seedlings. We'll
first thing they do very first thing in life is to send down their own root, and it's
Genetically identical to the package inside that seeds the top stalk the top growth is exactly genetically identical
To the roots make sense right? Also when I take a cutting in my greenhouse
The very first thing it wants to do is start sending out its own roots
So I've taken the cutting of genetic material from the top and it grows genetically identical material on the bottom
But that production system can take a little bit of time
So if I take a cutting it might be you know
Six months to a year before I can pot that up to one gallon pot and it might be two or three years before it
would grow into anything near
This size here now
This actually is a grafted rose and the production system on that is a little bit different so they grow
One rose usually from seed sometimes from cuttings
They grow it in the field and they grow it up to a size
So they might take two or three years making it a big beautiful rose in the field
Then the next thing they do is through a process called grafting. They'll take a Scion bud from the own root rose
So I'll take a Scion
there's a little piece of tissue from around the bud and they'll graft it or or chip it onto the stock of
the of the of the rootstock
variety and then it will grow and
They'll chop off the head of the original root stock variety
so what you're left with is a root stock that belongs to a root stock variety and
The top stock belongs to the Scion variety. So it's a it's (not!) a hybrid. It's like a
Frankenstein plant, I don't mean that in the GMO kind of way
I just mean that in the classic take one part of the body and
grafted on to another so
What you can see on this one here and maybe I'll get you a close-up is you can see this prominent spot
On the rose called the graft union
underneath of which all of the tissue belongs to one rose and above that point all the tissue belongs to another rose and
By contrast
This rose here, which I took from cuttings and I'll get you a close-up on that as well. You can clearly see there's no big
Bulge like that under which all the tissue belongs to the other. It's actually all
Genetically one rose the roots belong to the plant
okay time to start talking about the advantages and disadvantages and
Again in that book you can see the list to the he makes of the claimed advantages versus disadvantages of grafted roses
So I'll talk about those here and maybe the first one that he mentions and the first one that most people will talk about is
how quickly you can get a really beautiful rose from grafted from the grafted process, so
The producer puts the time into making this big beautiful under stock or root stock they graft on the rose and a year or so
later, they're able to ship that to you with canes on it that are ready to bloom and you'll get
Big blooms that first year whereas with a known root rose it can take some time to get there
Now, I'm not an instant gratification kind of guy so that doesn't bother me
But you should note that initially is that if you buy something
Grafted in many cases, you will get much much faster results
You will get growing it own root the exceptions on that have grown over time
So what he wrote, you know?
again
75 years ago didn't take into account that some breeding has happened between
Then and now which has produced roses that perform a lot better on their own roots
In fact, I would say back in the 40s and 50s and 60s they barely even
Evaluated roses for how they would perform on their own roots because they knew that they would be grafting them. So there wasn't that
that
Evaluation that went in to the own root roses, so we didn't know now many breeders do evaluate
Almost first and foremost for health and vigor of a rose on its own roots
And so there are a lot more contenders that way so going right along the list that Hennessy made in this book
His second advantage of grafted roses actually is a disadvantage in disguise
He talks about the longevity of a good well-kept grafted rose being a dozen years or so and for me
That's like well, I've seen own root roses that last
decades in the garden
If you go back to Europe, he'll find some on Castle and monastery walls that number there years and the hundreds of years. So
It's it's not bad that they live for about a dozen years or a little bit more
But it's it's not impressive to me in any major way
The third advantage listed in this book is actually a stronger point
I think it's that the grafted varieties growing on a root stock may be more adaptable to different soil conditions
I guess the point is that if you had a
scion variety that grows a weak root system or not a very adoptable root system and you put it on to the roots of a
stronger variety with a more adaptable root system
You can put that into any soil and the genetic weakness of the Scion won't matter, right?
So if you put take a multi flora root stock that's going to do well in a heavy or clay soil
And you you take you take that you can put any variety grafted onto that is going to do
Equally well in that same soil
So it makes a makes for a more adaptable rose and I'm going to say fair enough on that
Although, you know, I have a pretty heavy clay soil here. I do own root roses and
I don't have problems establishing them in this soil. You know, I I guess I'm gonna say your mileage may vary on that point
I don't believe in it so strongly
But I do take the point that many of the own root roses. We're never evaluated for the strength of their own roots
And so some of them will struggle in some soils
Now onto the disadvantages of grafted roses and I guess conversely you'd say that each of these
Disadvantages of grafted Rose is an advantage of the own root rose
And the first point is that that graft union that place where they've grafted the top stock
To the root stock is the weakest part of the rose
insofar as it does tend to build up scar tissue whenever a cane dies back down to there you get this this a
Woody dead looking stump on there. That's where disease can get in
it becomes the weakest and most vulnerable part of your rose and
Oftentimes people will bury that graft union under the surface of the soil. So you can't even tell what's going on there
At least I keep mine usually up near the surface so I can clean it up and and and keep a track of how
Well, it's doing but yeah
It's the weakest part of the rose and when they talk about that 12-year lifespan of a grafted Rose
That's usually what does it in is that some portion of those canes die back to the graft Union and then the Rose is dead
whereas with own root roses, I often find them shooting up brand new shoots from below the soil surface and
Renewing themselves. That way he makes an interesting point in the book here. He calls it point number three, which is that the
Strength of the grafted section of the rose
enables or
Allows weaker varieties to be grafted on and thus disguises some of their weakness
So if you have a really really strong root stalk then you put something on it. Like oh say Distant Drums or
Double Delight or something like that, then it grows extremely well and shows up as a great plant in the garden
But when people take their own cuttings off of it and try to root those, they're not gonna get great results
True enough, you know, that's that's my point about these the the grafted system is that it wasn't there
It wasn't made for the advantage of the gardener
although it may have some advantages to the it really was made for the convenience and marketing ability and the ability of
nurseries to pump out large volumes of brand-new varieties in a very short period of time
Without much scion material to go on so when they found a new variety that they knew would be a marketing success
they didn't want to wait three or five years for own root roses for evaluation of own route roses and then to try to
build that stock up to size
all they had to do was chip off little bits of buds and just slam them on to thousands of
Rootstock varieties that were already in the field and they can get that to market the very next year. So it
He's a hundred percent right there
I think it probably did hide a lot of the genetic weaknesses of
Rose varieties throughout all the years that roses have been grafted now
He does list some advantages of own root roses
And I'm only going to go over the first one because I think it's the only important one on the list, which is that
if grown on their own roots and established well and grown to size that own root roses can be
vigorous
healthy
High-performing plants that last a really really long time in your garden and that's it for me
I just want that's what I want in a rose
I don't want to go for lots of blooms really really quickly as they put in the advertising brochures you
It doesn't take years to make a great rose
It only takes weeks or something along those lines and I get it, you know instant gratification is the thing but for me
the thing that appeals to me more is getting a rose in the ground that's going to have
Longevity and performance, but I haven't talked about the elephant in the room yet. And that is that that grafted
The top stock is above it
The root stock is below it the root stock doesn't always stay where it belongs the root stock sometimes sends out root stocks
suckers and
That's annoying to the maximum. So I have a good supplier
I buy roses from Palatine roses, and I'm not gonna badmouth them at all
I just made another order
They're fantastic and they actually offer a lot of Rose varieties that other suppliers don't offer
So really happy with them a supplier, but they actually they graft the roses
Okay
No problem there but probably one or two four of the roses that I buy for
Them within a year of putting them in the ground. They shoot from below the draft
They shoot a new rootstock sucker
And if you're not quick and you don't catch that and you don't see there's something weird going on there with my rose
That rootstock section is very vigorous and can dominate the performance of your rose
So suddenly you're not getting these wonderful flowers that you bargained for you're getting some
Long blind piece of wood or you're getting something with insignificant flowers on it, and it's annoying to the max
I'm gonna see if I can find something like that in the garden here so I can show you what it kind of looks like
But yeah, that's my that's for me the deal-breaker about buying
Grafted roses is if I can choose own root. I choose own root because I don't want those rootstock suckers in my garden
All right. I've gotten up close and personal with a rootstock sucker here
This one is on the variety Complicata which is established along the back fence of my property. The crown is actually way back there and
up front here is a rootstock sucker that
Looks a little different
And what I want to do is I want to get some footage that demonstrates them side-by-side
With the main stems of the plant I'm gonna go up here and show you
That one of the main differences is the foliage
So if you count the leaflets on the rootstock sucker that has seven leaflets on it
The main plant has and the leaflets are sign of silvery or grayish in color
I hope you can pick that up on the film whereas the main stems of complicado are a warmer greener color and
Usually have five leaflets
also
Complicata when it blooms it has
Obviously the flowers you can tell very easily at that point
But even at this stage of the year when you look at the hips, they are large round orange hips
Whereas if you ever see the rootstock in this case
Go to hips you'll see urn shaped
Smaller hips almost like a dog rose
So I don't want to unfairly maligned Palatine roses because I don't think I got this one from them
I think this is back in the day when I was able to order roses from Hortico but
similarly when I plant any grafted Rose
there's a risk that I get this rootstock sucker and the only way for me to get rid of it is
to go back down to that base there and
Cut it
if I can even below the soil level get it as far back towards the
Crown as I can to eliminate some of that tissue but it's an ongoing battle this one
I've been fighting with for over 10 years and still every year
I have suckers like this one pop up the threatening to take over the whole shrub
Alright, thanks so much for watching this video on the difference between own root and grafted roses. I'm quite sure that in this discussion
I've missed some important point about this
So if you're a rose expert or even if you're not and you have some questions about this
Drop comments below we'll sort through those questions together. Thanks so much for watching