Budding as an art is simple, useful, and easily acquired by any one with a little practice. More can be learned practically about budding in a few hours spent with a skillful nurseryman while he is performing the operation, than could be derived from anything we might write on the subject. We are aware that we shall not be able to state in this brief chapter what will be new or instructive to experienced gardeners or nurserymen. This is not our aim, what may be old to them is likely to be new to thousands of amateur gardeners. In another part of this book will be found a chapter on grafting; this, though differently performed, is analogous in its results to budding, and many amateurs not infrequently speak of them in the same terms. To graft a cion, one end is carefully cut in the shape of a wedge, and inserted in a cleft where it is to grow; on the other hand, in budding, we use but a single eye, taken from a small branch, and insert it inside of the bark of the stock or tree we wish to bud. From this one eye, we may in time look for a tree laden with precious fruit. To be more explicit, and by way of illustration, we will imagine a seedling apple tree, a "natural," to have grown up in our garden. If left alone, the fruit of that seedling tree would probably be worthless, but we don't propose to risk that, and will proceed to bud it with some kind more worthy of room in a garden. When the proper season for budding fruit arrives, generally from the first to the latter part of July, will be the time to bud, if the stock is growing thriftily. A keen-bladed budding knife made for the purpose, a "cion" or "stick" of the variety to be budded, some twine (basswood bark is the best), make up the needed outfit for this operation. If After the bud has been properly set, it should be firmly tied with a broad string, making the laps close enough to entirely cover the slip, leaving the eye of the bud uncovered. Various kinds of strings for tying buds are used by nurserymen, but the basswood bark, which The stock or stocks can now be left until the following spring, when the top should be cut away to within an inch or less of the bud; this will assist the roots to throw all their energy into the bud. TOP-BUDDING TREES.The top-budding of fruit and ornamental trees is much practised now-a-days by orchardists and fruit-growers generally, and sometimes with marked success. A famous horticulturist of Geneva, N. Y., some years ago planted a large number of Lombard plum trees, which he fondly expected to see come into bearing while quite young, and be early compensated for his labor and expense in planting them. He waited a number of years without seeing his hopes realized; his patience at last became exhausted, and starting, lie top-budded them all with the Bradshaw plum, which grew rapidly, and bore abundantly in a couple of years, and last season he received eight dollars per bushel for the fruit in the Philadelphia market. It is a well known fact among fruit-growers that some rank-growing varieties of fruit trees, as for instance the Keiffer Hybrid Pear, do not produce fruit so early, or in such abundance as some less thrifty-growing varieties, such as the Beurre Clairgeau, but by top-budding the latter-named sort on to a thrifty specimen of the former, we have a tree that will bear fruit almost every year. Nothing will take better from the bud than the rose; some elegant tree roses can be grown by simply training up a shoot of any common or wild rose to a sufficient hight, about five feet, and then top-budding it with three or four choice hybrids, as the Gen. Jacqueminot, La Reine, Coquette des Alps, and Black Prince, and those gems of the floral kingdom, when in blossom, will form a variety of dazzling beauties, the effect of which will not only be charming to the eye, but novel as well. I once removed from the door-yard a large rose bush of the Crimson Boursault variety, which had a number of large limbs on, into a corner of the conservatory, and there budded into it fifty different choice varieties of Roses of all classes: Hybrids, Teas, Noisettes, Bourbons, China, and Bengal varieties. The effect of all these different Roses, when in full blow the following summer was amazing; a perfect galaxy of the "Queen of Flowers." A similar operation is possible for any skillful amateur florist to perform who has the facilities of a hot-house. Budding can only be done when, ripe buds can be obtained, and when the stock to be budded is in a growing and thrifty condition, so that when opening the bark of the stock, the same peels freely, and opens readily at the touch of the knife. We will append here a brief table showing at what months of the summer different trees may be budded:
Most all sorts of ornamental trees, including Roses, in the ordinary season; namely, from July to August 1st. |