Deep stem planting

Did anyone see that interesting segment on deep stem planting on Gardening Australia, a few weeks ago. They plant leggy, potted rainforest trees about a metre deep, with great results. Seems to break all the rules!

I had an old grafted, lanky, potted "Souvenir d'un Ami" so I planted it about 40 cm deep - the graft was about 20 cm below soil level. That was about a month ago. Now it's flowering and thriving. I think it will take all summer to test this method. This also breaks all the rules of rose planting!

Anyone else heard of this? Anyone willing to try it so we can compare results?

Dave, I have 2 Crepescules to go in, I will plant one "normal" and one below ground. I will take photo's before I back fill and keep records.

A side to the above Dave I have always planted most of my vege seedlings that way, tommies, beans, any that have a longish stem, they appear to send out adventurous roots.

The two Davids, there was a nursery suggesting ( Forget their name) planting the graft 6" below the ground for ownroots to develope. It was considered common practice in their nursery.
The plant gets the initial boost from the stocks then own roots slowly take over. Perhaps the stock roots remain active and help further growth.
I have noticed how slow the ownroot cuttings are to develope their own roots to a stage where they thrive.
I think there has been a lot of grafted roses where the ground has built up and when dug around they appear as ownroot.

David would like to hear more about the Crepuscle, are they grafted and how much deeper you plant?

Dave... I plant every rose like this now for a few reasons...

1. We get very strong wind here (the Roaring Forties) and I find that roses planted deeply do not blow over at all. Roses, in general, are pretty wind-firm around here but those planted above the graft invariably blow over in spring when the winds are strongest and most prevalent and the ground still soft from all our winter rain.

2. Roses planted deeply seem to develop better form. The reason I believe this is true is that when you plant a rose deeply you also bury dormant buds and these dormant buds often begin to shoot underground and make their way to the surface, sometimes up to 50cm from the main plant but usually, for me, 10-30cm away. These stems grow as separate trunks and so you get a clumping effect instead of a stick with leaves and flowers. I am seeing this often enough now to believe there is something to it. I noticed a 'Sunny South' cutting I got from Dee that is growing away nicely in a pot has just done this as well. I'm very pleased with this as it will make it a multi-trunk plant and my hope is that these will, in turn, also produce underground shoots and a small thicket of 'Sunny South' will develop.

3. I always bury the graft about 20-30cm below the ground now in the hope that one day the scion section will have developed its own roots, send out these side shoots, and become own-root. I have seen this also on one specimen here so far ('Soaring Spirits'.. a climber, which I killed off when trying to move it as you may have read in a previous post)... I have not bothered to seek confirmation of this by uncovering the grafts of others that are thriving in case I injure them as well. Burying the graft has saved my bacon on more than one occassion around here too. I had a few roses, such as 'Ebb Tide' planted below the graft and then my dogs, ducks, and marauding chooks (who are now securely contained behind a new fence) broke off all the above-ground portions level with the ground. I placed a wire cage over it hoping that it might resprout and today I noticed that there are new buds coming up from the ground from the grafted stems below the ground so thank goodness these sections were underground and protected from the animal antics occuring above the ground When we moved down here from 'Norfolk Island' I had a lot of roses with my Mum and Dad near where you live Dave. Mum sent down a few special ones, the most special to me was a hybrid tea called 'Eliza' because my duaghter's name is Eliza and I bought this roses nearly 13 years ago to celebrate her birth. Unfortunately, my Mum had not had much luck with it in her sandy soil in San Remo over the past 5-7 years or so and the graft was badly damaged and in a very bad way. I cut all the dead wood off and buried the graft about a foot under the ground leaving only a few centimetres of one remaining stem above the ground hoping the scion section would develop it's own roots so that over time the bottom section could just die off. Two years later and the rose hasn't looked back. It has about four stems now, three of which pushed their way back up through the ground as described above and the plant is about 3ft tall and strong as an ox. My very first seedling was also sent down with this batch of roses. It's an unremarkable (ok... bloody ugly ) rose buut I keep it because it was my first ever rose seedling (from an OP hip on 'Black Velvet'). The rose is now about 8 years old and also planted deeply to allow all the stems to develop a clump. Amazingly enough in a clump the flowers don't look so ugly

I would mention, however, that if you bury the graft on some roses, like rugosa hybrids, there is a very good chance the scion section will develop it's own roots and then begin to send out suckers all over the place. Some people don't mind this (I'm in two minds about it really) but it would play havoc with a formal garden.

So... yeah... I've been doing for ages and wouldn't do it any other way now.

Fascinating and very plausible, Simon. Hope everyone reads your post:) Makes me want to rush outside and replant a few!

Of course good subsoil drainage is probably important (altho a Crepuscule growing over a tank here sits in water for weeks sometimes, and is thriving) not to mention a good depth of soil.