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Text and illustrations: Pieter den Uden
Photography: Bonsai Europe Studio
Its about eleven years since I was on the
search for red flowering hawthorn
(Crataegus oxyacantha). Most of the trees I
found, though, were unsuitable as bonsai
because they had a poor root base, and
only high branches on the trunk, which also
had no movement in it not a favourable
scenario. So I decided to grow them
myself, just the way I wanted
Because of my education in horticulture, I had some
knowledge of the art of grafting. First of all I graft-
ed with red flowering hawthorn but, later on, I grafted
on other deciduous and coniferous species, too. By
experimenting and learning from experts, I managed to
improve my technique. I will show you how I graft
with hawthorns.
Grafting is to place a freshly cut part of a plant in bud
(the scion) directly on to a freshly cut trunk with a root
ball (rootstock). The aim is to encourage both to grow
together as a single plant. There are different methods
of grafting for deciduous trees, but the main goal is
that you have a rootstock and a matching scion. The
method demonstrated here is the one I use for grafting
hawthorn, but it can be implemented for almost any
deciduous tree.
Why graft?Grafting is used when plants grown from seed take too
long to mature, dont blossom in a reasonable time,
nor grow true to type. Pine, beech, or red hawthorn is
difficult to propagate from cuttings. Some plant vari-
eties simply dont have strong roots, so they are graft-
ed on to stock that posseses this quality.
Natural response to a cut or woundWith grafting, we make use of the healing ability of
plants. The so-called Cambium layer helps to heal over
cuts or other wounds. The Cambium is a one-cell layer
that generates new tissue to transport liquids, for
growth in girth and is situated between the sapwood,
phloem and bark layers. Transportation of water and
nutritious salts are to be found in the sapwood layer.
In the phloem layer the nutritives produced by the
leaves circulate downwards. When you graft, both the
scion and the rootstock will develop cells that have a
corky texture, called Callus. Under the influence of theCambium layer the callus cells will grow over the bare
face of the wound.
Grafting redhawthornGetting up early to
ask the nursery-
man if I can cut
some shoots for
myscions from his
hawthorn stock
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(1) The rootstock of
the hawthorn
(Crataegus monogy-
na) is selected
according to thick-
ness and root base.The roots are pruned
and the trunk is cut
very short, so that
you can place the
scion very close to
the root base. As a
result, when the
buds sprout they will
develop branches
low on the trunk
(2) Here I cut the
root stock
(3) Here I try to fit
the rootstock with
the scion of a
Crataegus Pauls
Scarlet
(4) I carefully match
the cut areas of the
rootstock andscion
Grafting technique is shown
below in the drawing
Long matured
shoots of
Crataegus oxya-
cantha Pauls
Scarlet, which will
be grafted on therootstock of
Crataegus monog-
yna. Note the buds
at the side of the
shoots
The healing is a gradual process, the rate being directly
related to the health and growth of the tree. You can
only graft plants that are genetically of the same
species. A pine grafted on to hawthorn is impossible.
Grafting toolsA Grafting knife: with a good grip.You should have a
very sharp knife because if the wound is untidy or
jagged the graft will take longer to hold. Some material
to bind the graft to the stock cloth, raffia or elastic.I use elasticised string because this is easy to work
with. Another advantage is that it adjusts to the thick-
ening of the trunk and wont bite into the bark.
Wax for graftingI normally use wax which needs to be heated on a
stove. The wax should start to melt, but not allowed
to boil or become hotter than 80 degrees Celsius
because it starts to burn. You can easily apply the wax
on to the graft with a brush. Wax stops the graft from
drying out and protects it from infections. If your graft
is kept in a polytunnel or cold frame, you neednt apply
the wax because the higher humidity can cause the
graft to rot beneath the wax.
Correct rootstockThe rootstock should be free of viruses and fungi. Try
to obtain trees with trunks of the same diameter and
which are true to type. The root system should be
good and spreading. For this I use the hawthorn
species Crataegus monogyna or laevigata.
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The graft is held tightly to the rootstock while elasticised tape is
wrapped around the point where both ends meet. The end should
cross over your finger; then you slip the end under your finger-tip
and pull your finger away. After which the tape will fit tightly
around the graft.
At work in the polytunnel, grafts aretreated with wax and planted in a
crate with Torf. Later these will be
planted in the open field.
This is a graft with six buds, too many for such a small shoot and it
is possible that it will dry out. Shorten it to three buds and you will
have more success, and with a better chance of the trunk fattening
(Above left) Here you have two examples of grafting methods: the
top example shows that when the rootstock is thicker than the
scion it is grafted on the side . The lower example shows the result
of the method I use
(Above right) wax is being applied to the wound
Obtaining fresh scionsScions are obtained from matured 1-year-old shoots.
With Prunus or hawthorn these shoots are easilyrecognised because they are long and grow straight
up. I always ask at nurseries if I can remove such
shoots and make sure that I only select those that are
free of virus and pests and that they have no other
damage. The cut shoots should have a between 3 to 5
buds. Directly after taking the shoots they should be
wrapped in a plastic bag and stored in the fridge, cool-
ing them to between 0.5 and 3 degrees Celsius. The
shoots for the scion will remain fresh for about 14
days, after which they can no longer be used for
grafting.
When to graft?For successful grafting, it is necessary that the plants
cells are active round the spot where you are going to
graft. To promote cell activity you need a temperature
of at least 13 degC, but it shouldnt be too hot either
the maximum temperature to encourage cell activity
is 32 degC. The best growing temperature is 20 degC.
I start to graft hawthorn in early spring say around
the end of February or the beginning of March. The
advantage of this timing is that the plant is still
dormant.
AftercareAfter grafting you can place the plants in a cold frame
or polytunnel in a growing bed of Torf (sifted pinebark). With plastic, protect them from severe frosts or
the occasional sunny day, but remove it when it is not
needed to let the plants air and prevent them from
budding. Check regularly for fungi or pest attacks. In
April when temperatures rise, you can plant the stock
in open ground 20 centimetres apart, so that all buds
receive enough sun to promote equal budding on each
trunk.
After one growing season all side branches should be
pruned back to 5 cm to promote a dense branch struc-
ture. The grafts can be lifted during the second year
and the root ball pruned to promote a fine root struc-
ture. Even the branches are reduced at this time. To
obtain a trunk with a better taper, the top is reducedto a side branch from which the trunk will grow on. If
you prefer, you can choose to grow the graft in a
training pot, but from my experience I can tell you that
nothing beats the results you get from the open field.
The trunk will thicken less in a pot.
Pests and diseasesAll hawthorn are vulnerable to mildew, gall, midge and
scale insects. Start to spray with pesticides before the
buds sprout, to prevent growth slowing down.
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You can buy the wax in the spe-
cialised garden sundries outlets
where nurseries do their shopping
Elasticised bindings to hold the
scion and rootstock together
This forest planting consists of
hawthorn (Crataegus oxyacan-
tha Pauls Scarlet) which I
grafted entirely myself. The for-
est is only a couple of years
old, but the trees were trained
in the field for more than five
years. The grafts are hard to
identify (detail left)
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Not just a knife, this is a special grafting
knife with a curved blade
The wax is being melted on an electric
hotplate; its important not to let it boil