Grafts/Cuttings

When people see a beautiful shrub or tree they probably don’t give much thought about where it came from.  They might assume it came from the nursery or garden center, but they aren’t aware of where they got their roots.  Some trees are started from a seed, such as silver maple, nut trees, green ash, pine, spruce varieties, ect.

However, it might be a surprise to learn that most trees sold today are budded or grafted to a hardier rootstock.

When shopping for trees, you may have noticed a large knob at the base of the tree.  This is a graft.  It is at this point, the knob, that the branch of an existing tree is surgically fastened to a compatible rootstock.  Rootstocks are grown for this specific purpose; the upper foliage is cut away and disposed of.  The rootstock not only improves hardiness, but also in cases such as dwarf fruit trees, flowering crab trees and other dwarf varieties, controls the mature size of the tree.  Nurserymen and horticulturists sometimes spend years trying to develop new, hardy cultivars of trees and shrubs.  This is a slow, tedious job.  It takes many growing seasons to insure proper growth habits.

Sometimes Mother Nature herself gives us a new variety.  Certain apples were developed by being a mutation, and people happened to notice them and further propagated them.  Many trees derived from seed turned out to be a useful addition to our tree population.

Most large evergreen trees are also started from seed.  These seeds are not just sown, like planting our gardens, but have to be properly selected and dried.  The soil has to be fumigated for any disease and then it takes three years before their trees can be lifted from their seedbeds.  They may be sold as three-year seedlings or be transplanted for another couple of years.