GRAFTS IN THE PORTABLE GREENHOUSE.
Of Grafting in general.--Resources that it offers for fixing
the Fugitive Sub-varieties.--Extent to which Grafting is
possible.--Tomatoes upon Potatoes.--Rice Upon Phalaris.--Orange
Graft.--Manner of Operating.--Wrappings of Woollen Tarn.--Applications
of the above Process.--Pontoise Graft.--Grafting the Camellia.--The
Camellia in its Native Country.
Of Grafts in general.
Before learning how to perform the different modes of grafting which
belong to the domain of parlor horticulture, you may, perhaps, ladies,
wish to be informed what grafting itself is, considered in a general
point of view. Grafting, then, is, if I may be permitted to use the
expression, a forced marriage, often very badly assorted. Of this
particular kind of forced marriage, the consequences cannot be happy,
except when the two individuals, united without having been consulted,
are very near relations; that is to say, when they belong to species
or varieties very proximate to each other. In the portable greenhouse,
both cold and warm, we have just been practising, with complete
success, the operation called _slipping_, in a variety of ways. Well,
then, _grafting_ is still another kind of slipping. Instead of putting
the slip in the earth, that it may there live by its own roots, we join
it on to another plant, where a piece has been cut away to make room
for it. Then, instead of putting out roots of its own, that it may draw
from the earth the sustenance which it requires, the graft incorporates
itself with the plant to which it has been attached, and feeds upon the
stores provided by the latter for its own support. This it does without
changing its own nature, or modifying in any way that of the other.
You may have remarked this in gardens. If a plum stock, upon which an
apricot has been grafted, puts out young shoots below the graft, these
are plum shoots. In like manner, a sweetbrier stock with a rose grafted
on it, produces only branches of sweetbrier, exactly such as they would
have been had the plant never been grafted upon. On the other hand,
the graft, and all produced by it, retains the nature of its parent
plant as perfectly unchanged as if it had continued to form part of it.
Owing to this law, results the most curious and precious are easily
obtained in horticulture. Varieties, and fugitive sub-varieties, which
it is impossible to reproduce by sowing, difficult even to preserve by
slips, are fixed and propagated indefinitely.
Survey of Grafts that are possible.
That I may not have to repeat, I will remark now, ladies, that the
domain of grafting, the extent to which successful grafting is
possible, is very great; so great that it has not yet been completely
explored. You know, as every body does, that fruit trees and roses are
grafted. I am going to have the pleasure of making you graft, in your
portable greenhouse, oranges and camellias, wherewith to furnish your
balcony garden when it shall come to be established. I am going also
to make you plant a simple and modest potato in a box, that you may
have the pleasure of grafting on its stalks shoots of tomatoes. Yes,
shoots that will bloom and produce their fruit, while the vegetation of
the potato is running its career and continuing to form its tubers. On
closing the account, you will gather potatoes enough for a dish, and
tomatoes enough to make a sauce for the beef stew, to be served with
the potatoes. I will lay a wager, madam, that this tomato sauce will
have a more exquisite flavor for your palate than any your cook ever
prepared before, let her be the very best of all possible cooks.
When you procure an aquarium, you may cultivate rice in it, which will
come to perfect maturity. You must graft shoots of this rice upon seeds
of the species _phalaris_; and you will see that they will not grow
the less healthily, nor form their ears the less perfectly for being
grafts. I tell you all this beforehand, in order that you may at once
form an idea of what it may be possible to accomplish by grafting, even
when restricted to the narrow limits of horticulture in the parlor.
Orange Grafts.
Here are the young stocks, the product of the orange and lemon seeds
sown by you a year ago. They are the size of a quill; their wood has
consistence, their vegetation is vigorous; it is time to graft on
them. Let us take for grafts young shoots of a myrtle-leaved China
orange--one of the prettiest varieties to cultivate in an apartment,
whether on account of its numerous flowers, which are fragrant, but
not too strongly so, or on account of the fruits that succeed these
flowers, and which, preserved in sugar or in brandy, are a favorite
treat for a numerous class of consumers.
About half way up the stock, you make choice of a leaf very green and
well formed; at the fork of this leaf--that is to say, at the point
where it connects with the stalk--there is an eye, which eye, if left
there, would produce a side branch.
With a newly-sharpened penknife, cut a little way into the wood, above
and below the eye, making these cuts slanting, so that a small portion
of the stalk, containing that eye, shall be separated and fall,
without the leaf being detached. Now you have a cutting, the size and
form of which you must examine with care. This being done, you must
then, for the graft that is to occupy the vacancy just made by you,
select a little branch of myrtle-leaved orange, and the lower end of
this must be cut into such shape as to fit very exactly into the place
cut in the stock. As the graft, if left there after being fitted, would
fall apart at the least shake, it requires to be fastened in its place,
until it shall have taken firm hold and incorporated itself with the
stock. This is effected by putting a bandage on. But here a difficulty
presents itself, which has caused many a failure, but may, however,
easily be surmounted by a little attention. If you do not draw the
bandage tight enough, it will not hold the two surfaces in contact,
and this would prevent the success of the operation. If, on the other
hand, you draw it too tight, this will interfere with the circulation
of the sap; your graft will be strangled, as the gardeners say. Take
care, then, to adjust your bandage perfectly--avoiding both extremes;
tight enough, but only just tight enough, to keep the graft firmly in
its place. Employ for this purpose untwisted woollen thread, which, in
case you have drawn it somewhat too tight, will, from its elasticity,
accommodate itself to what the sap requires, and prevent strangling.
Applications of the above Method of Grafting.
All graftings of this sort that can be made on other shrubs with
persistent leaves, besides orange trees, and especially upon daphnes
and myrtles, will prove completely successful, provided that at the
time you graft them these shrubs are in full sap--that is, that their
vegetation is in full activity. Strictly speaking, in ornamental shrubs
with persistent leaves, the sap is never completely stationary, as it
is in winter with those that lose their leaves. They have, however, a
half repose in winter; after which their sap begins to flow again with
renewed energy. This is the most favorable time for grafting them.
[Illustration: Fig. 6.--Graft à la Pontoise.]
Grafting a la Pontoise.
As to the orange, its vital principle is so very active that you can,
without fear, trust a graft quite full of flower buds ready to
bloom, to a seedling stock a year or eighteen months old. The graft
should be of a diameter nearly equal to that of the stock; it will take
directly. The course of the sap is not sensibly interrupted, and the
buds will open as if they had remained upon the shrub from which they
were detached. In all cases, the entire stock above the graft should be
removed, so that the portion of the stock below the graft shall form
merely the lower part of the trunk of the tree, whilst all above shall
be formed from the graft exclusively. If this sort of grafting, named
by the French gardeners _grafting à la pontoise_, were conducted in the
open air, the evaporation from the leaves would kill the graft before
it took. It can succeed only when excluded from contact with the air.
Your orange trees grafted in this manner will be perfectly sheltered
under the glass of your portable greenhouse; which you must take care
to keep close shut, until your grafts, by continuing to grow, give you
assurance that they have taken.
Grafting Camellias.
Now, ladies, that you know how to graft orange trees, you can, without
further teaching, graft the single camellias that you have multiplied
by slips; the proceeding is exactly the same. You must not, however,
take for grafts--as you did for the orange--branches bearing flower
buds; the flower buds would not bloom, and the flower-bearing branches
would with difficulty be made to grow to the stock. You also already
know that the bud of the camellia only takes with certainty in the warm
greenhouse; unaided by artificial heat, the sap of the camellia, much
less active than that of the orange, would not suffice to assure the
success of the grafting.
Moreover, I would have you remark, ladies, that grafting offers you
infinite resources for rejuvenating old camellias that have gone
out of fashion. Graft upon their boughs, whatever their age may be,
young shoots of camellia, of the kind that may be most in fashion at
the time. Camellias, like yourselves, are subject to the caprices of
fashion. These grafts will always take; the camellia in its native
country being a sturdy tree, of a very robust temperament, which it
partly preserves in the conservatories of Europe and America. If it
should ever happen to you to make a pleasure trip to Japan,--it might
so happen to any body,--you would see that, although the camellia is
a sacred tree, which they plant round the temples, while its flowers
are used in making garlands for religious festivals, they treat it in
other respects with but little ceremony. You would see entire woods of
them, of great extent, where every camellia is trimmed up to a single
stem, as straight as a hop-pole. Do you know what they do when these
camellias are of an age to be cut down? They make of them, ladies,
simply handles for brooms, or spades, or other utensils; they are
intended for nothing else.
Do not expect, in going to Japan, the country of the camellia, to see
this charming shrub such as you see it here. The Japanese gardeners
do not trouble themselves much in bringing it to perfection. Your
camellias, that you have reared from slips and grafted with your own
hands, might serve as models to those that figure in the gardens of the
Emperor of Japan.