I buy budded roses for the same reason you do, it is the only kind offered for sale by the nurseries. That is not to say l do it because I want to. On the contrary, I would prefer to buy a healthy plant grown on its roots.
But since they are not available and it is not feasible to develop my own, I have to be content with the budded stock.
For many years, the idea that budded roses are superior has been kept before the public, and most of us believe it. Books on rose culture have stressed the point and, of course, the beautiful catalogs coming your way each year tell of the beautiful budded stock for sale, and we, the trusting rose growers, believed this and have purchased them by the millions.
Somewhere along the way, I became suspicious that some of this talk was more for the producer of rose plants than for the rose grower. A little investigation convinced me this was true. It is easier and faster to grow a budded plant, and it does better the first year in the grower’s garden.
It is possible to multiply the number of plants much faster by budding than by cuttings; you see a cutting with five eyes will produce five budded plants but only one self-rooted plant. Also, the understock chosen has a pattern of root development suited to easy digging. This is fine for the producer but has little relation to the garden.
Let’s look at some of the reasons given for using budded roses.
Budded Roses Are More Vigorous
Given plants of the same size and grown under the same conditions, the budded rose will likely outproduce the first year’s self-rooted rose. In later years the self rooted rose will usually keep up and often be superior.
There are without a doubt some varieties that will produce better roses on budded plants. On the other hand, some plants are superior to their roots, so they are evenly balanced. Roses tend to have split centers with fewer such malformations on their roots.
Today with the rooting hormones available and the other propagation aids, it is possible to get very vigorous own-root plants.
A Budded Rose is Hardier
This would be one for a laugh if it were not so widely believed. The root-stock may be hardier than the rose you want to grow, but what good is the hardy root-stock if the rose you wish to die, what good the hardy root-stock is?
When a budded rose is not hilled up and freezes to the ground, it may be killed the under-stock yet will likely survive and send up a lovely shoot in the spring. But if it had been your root plant, you would still have a plant of the desired variety, not a worthless understock.
A Budded Rose is More Disease Resistant
This is another one for the comedians. It is the same rose in either case. If grown under the same conditions, the disease resistance is the same. A weak plant is more subject to disease, but if a plant is well-rooted and well cared for, the disease resistance is the same.
For several years, I have grown both types of roses, side by side, and after the first year or so, I can see absolutely no difference except that the budded roses seem to get tired after a few years and slow down somewhat on their growth.
Many rosarians do not have the time, experience, or know-how to grow their plants, to say nothing of the problem of patent restrictions. I plead that some producers of rose plants realize some folks like myself would much rather buy a rose on its roots than a budded plant, even if the cost is a few cents more.
Roses were grown on their roots for thousands of years before budding came into fashion. Some of the fine old rose gardens of the world have plants older than you or I. Let’s not be in such a hurry to get our roses blooming that we cut short their life span.
No doubt I shall be compelled to buy budded roses in the future to secure the varieties I want, but I hope the day will come when it will be possible to get any rose on its roots.