You're welcome, Lyna! Yes ma'am, each one HAS its own personality. It's observing them then determining what other "personalities" you want to mate them to that's part of the fun of breeding. If your cuttings are rotting, they're too wet. Whether that's due to too heavy soil, watering them too frequently or having too high humidity due to covering them, something is keeping them too wet, so they rot. If they shrivel, they're usually drying out. I'd not had success rooting roses in my new climate until I ran across the wrapping method, which I termed "Burrito Method" and detailed on my blog below. Like all the other methods, it requires tweaking to get it set just right for your specific conditions, but once you get the hang of it, the method works! A few months ago, I received bud wood of a rose I'd sought, from a lovely lady in Northern California. The wood was quite thin and I didn't know what exactly I could do with it. I had stocks rooted, so I tried budding it, then took what wasn't really suitable and tried a modified method of rooting. It was actively growing, and it was warm, so the wrapping method wouldn't work. I treated them as I would any cuttings, then planted them very deeply in seed starter mix, in gallon cans and placed them under other potted roses where they would have higher humidity, some filtered sun, but protection from the real heat and extreme sun. Most failed, but a few ARE rooted! Many of the buds also failed, but some are remaining green after a few months and appear to be successful. I figured by planting them deep, so most of the cutting length was immersed in cool, damp soil, they wouldn't dry out. It's what I do with callused cuttings out of the wraps, and it works perfectly with them. With only an inch or so of cutting poking out of the soil, and only a leaf or two remaining on them, they could provide some photosynthesis to help carry them along until roots formed. Once it begins raining, I will transplant them from their communal pots, lifting them to the level I want them to grow. Until then, I'll let them continue forming roots. The rains will help to harden them off so they won't be lost to being subjected to too high heat, too brilliant sun and too dry conditions too quickly. I'm also getting ready to break the tops of the root stocks so the foliage will remain attached to help keep them fed, but much of the sap flow will be interrupted so it is directed into the inserted buds, forcing them to begin growing. I use both the traditional "T" budding method and Burling's Chip Budding Method on several different root stocks so I hedge my bet with whatever I have and want to insure takes. Using several methods helps spread the risk of loss so chances of success improve dramatically. I use VI IXL, Cardinal Hume and Sequoia's Pink Clouds. I should also obtain some VI Dr. Huey and VI Ragged Robbin. I had the Ragged Robin VI from the Heritage Rose Garden, but lost it. I also have Dr. Manner's VI Fortuniana. It's finally put out enough thicker growth to provide some decent stocks next spring, so I'll probably start messing with budding to it then. If I have material I want to reproduce in the appropriate window here for rooting; I know it roots OK and grows OK own root; and it is of the appropriate condition for wrapping, I will wrap it. If it's summer, hence hotter (too hot for wrapping) and the material is actively growing, I'll try budding it. Whatever remains which isn't suitable for budding, I'll strike as cuttings to see if something works. But, if you wait until you have what you've been looking for, forever, to learn how to make the methods you want to use, work, you're guaranteed to fail. Murphy assures that. It's like waiting until the day before you take your world cruise to buy your new, elaborate camera you have absolutely no idea how to use. You're doomed. Rooting and budding are about equally as easy to learn. The hardest part is determining you are NOT going to allow it to overwhelm you. If it doesn't work, don't get frustrated. Put on your diagnostician's hat, figure out WHY it didn't so you can fix the problems, then get back on that horse to show it who's boss. Kim Here is a link that might be useful: Wrapping cuttings

My book says "You don't have to take any precautions to prevent one cultivar from crossing with another" but I checked the FAQ's and they say different that you have to cover the blossoms to avoid cross-pollination. Thanks in advance, ~mike **** Maybe about 90% of the time OP's do self pollenize. That means out of seed saved from 100 varieties on average 9 of them will have cross pollinated seed. But to help ensure that all the seed is pure it's suggested that one bag blossoms or grow varieties way far apart by geographic isolation. It really comes down to what the intended use of the seeds is going to be. If just for home use I don't think it's necessary to bag them but if you're going to list them in the SSE YEarbook, for instance, if you're an SSE member, or you're going to trade with them, then it might be better to bag blossoms. And bagging blossoms also can depend on how many varieties you're growing. For many years I used to grow about 200-250 varieties/year and there was no way I could bag all the blossoms I needed to to get the seed amounts I wanted for my listings in the SSE Yearbbok. But you said you read the FAQ on preventing X pollination, so I'm sure you know most of the details now. I would disagree with a book that said you don't have to take any precautions at all. And BTW most folks use the word variety when speaking of tomatoes, not the word cultivar as your book did. ( smile) Carolyn, who forgot to meantion that weather in any season can also cause stigmas to exert which means a normally non-exerted variety, which is the norm for our garden tomatoes, is more easily crossed by insect pollinators.

I have a multigraft Asian pear on OHxF333. I believe that D'Anjou pear is grafted onto the OHxF333 rootstock and then 4 varieties of Asian pears are clip budded onto the Anjou whip. So the Anjou is acting as an inter-stem. Ultimately the tree is a 5x1 because I can still get the euro pear from the tree. I also have a 4x1 cherry on G5 rootstock. It has 3 sweets along with Montmorency. I've always read that you can't graft Tart cherry to sweet cherry. That makes me think that the G5 rootstock is grown into a whip and then all 4 varieties are budded onto the whip. What shoots this theory down is that the tree appears to have a graft union low to the ground. So I'm not sure whats going on. lol

Show us some pics of the shoots you are talking about. Most likely the rootstock, if it is sprouting, will have trifoliate leaves, which should be easily identifiable. The growth from the Sumo should be unifoliate. Any reliable vendor would want to see pictures of the growth you are talking about before making any kind of statement. You haven't given them enough information. For sure rootstock shoots can overwhelm a plant and eventually take all the nutrients away from the scion, if left to grow. That happens a lot. But if I understand your question, no, a rootstock cannot actually grow up into a scion and shoot out, like an alien. If you can locate the graft union, just cut off any shoots that sprout from below it, especially if they have trifoliate leaves.