Those exposed to the deepest cold, callused the fastest and best. Those from more moderate weather situations developed less callus. Also interestingly, when the outdoor temperatures were in the sixties and seventies, the results were less dramatic. When we experienced the week of eighties and near ninety degree temperatures, the cuttings callused heavily and quite quickly. I removed a batch after ten days which had callused quite heavily.
I wouldn't have expected the outdoor temperature to have had such a dramatic effect on wraps held inside the house with the thermostat set at a continuous 68 degrees F, but it did!
These cuttings are from two varieties, both of which I intend to use to bud standards, or tree roses. The first is a seedling I raised a number of years ago from a cross I knew had to result in something neat. I used Ralph Moore's yellow climbing miniature breeder, 1-72-1 as the seed parent with pollen from Tom Carruth's wonderful shrub, Midnight Blue expecting something hopefully without prickles (or very few) and with strong coloring. I raised a very vigorous climber with lovely foliage and very few prickles...and absolute no flowers in over eight years. So, I decided to try it as a root stock to see how it might work. The wood is very strong, and as you can see from the photos, it calluses extremely well!
These are the two wraps with the long whips in them.
I plan on using these to bud the shorter polyanthas out back, in hopes of protecting them from being mowed down by the rabbits who refuse to leave them alone. There are also two smaller ground cover varieties I wish to use for breeding which don't lend themselves easily to my space grown on the ground. Hopefully, by creating shorter weeping standards of them, I will be able to grow and use them more easily. I'm keeping my fingers crossed!
