This mode of propagation is attended with great advantages and great evils. A new or rare rose may be increased by it more rapidly and surely than by any other means; while roses of feeble growth on their own roots will often grow and bloom vigorously when budded on a strong and congenial stock. On the other hand, the very existence of a budded rose is, in our severe climate, precarious. A hard winter may kill it down to the point of inoculation, and it is then lost past recovery; whereas a rose on its own roots may be killed to the level of the earth, and yet throw up vigorous shoots in the spring. Moreover, a budded rose requires more attention than the cultivator is always willing to bestow on it. An ill-informed or careless amateur will suffer shoots to grow from the roots or stem of the stock; and, as these are always vigorous, they engross all the nourishment, and leave the budded rose to dwindle or die; while its disappointed owner, ignorant of the true condition of things, often congratulates himself on the prosperous growth of his plant. At length he is undeceived by the opening of the buds, and the appearance of a host of insignificant single roses in the place of the Giant of Battles or General Jacqueminot.
Budding, however, cannot be dispensed with, since, in losing it, we should lose the most effectual means of increasing and distributing the choicest roses. The process consists in implanting, as it were, an undeveloped leaf-bud, of the variety we wish to increase, in the bark and wood of some other species of rose. The latter is called the stock, and it should be of a hardy and vigorous nature. Two conditions are essential to the process. The first is, that the bark of the stock will "slip;" in other words, separate freely from the wood. The second is, that the rose to be increased should be furnished with young and sound leaf-buds in a dormant state. These conditions are best answered in summer and early autumn, from the first of July to the middle of September. During the whole of this period, the sap being in active motion, the bark separates freely from the wood, while there is always a supply of plump and healthy buds on shoots of the same year's growth. The only implement necessary is a budding-knife. The operator should also provide himself with strings of bass-matting, moistened to make them pliant. Instead of the bass, cotton-wicking is occasionally used. Cut well-ripened shoots of the variety to be increased, provided with plump and healthy buds. In order to prevent exhaustion by evaporation from the surface of the leaves, these should be at once cut off; leaving, however, about half an inch of the leaf-stalk still attached to the stem. Insert the knife in the bark of the stem half an inch above a bud, and then pass it smoothly downward to the distance of half an inch below the bud, thus removing the latter with a strip of bark attached. A small portion of the wood will also adhere. This may be removed; though this is not necessary, and is attended with some little risk of pulling out with it the eye, or vital part, of the bud. Now place the bud between the lips while you take the next step of the process. This consists in cutting a vertical, slit in the bark of the stock. This done, cut a tranverse slit across the top of the vertical one. Both should be quite through the bark to the wood below; then, with the flat handle of the budding-knife, raise the corners of the bark, and disengage it from the wood sufficiently to allow of the bud being slipped smoothly into the crevice between the wood and bark of the stock. Next apply the edge of the knife to the protruding end of the bark attached to the bud, and cut it smoothly off immediately over the tranverse slit in the bark of the stock. The bud is now adjusted accurately in its place, the overlapping bark closing neatly around it. Now tie it above and below pretty firmly with repeated turns of the bass-matting, and the work is done. It must be remembered, that, to be well done, it must be quickly done; and it is better to insert the bud on the north or shady side of the stock.