How are trees grafted?
Some years ago, the soil of France was infested with a pesky insect which fed on the roots of the grape vines. The problem was solved by grafting. The beautiful hybrid tea rose is a result of plant grafting. Our best apples, plums and peaches grow from grafted trees. The trick of grafting is to arrange a merger between two growing plants. We tend to think that all new plants grow from seeds, but the plant world has many different methods of multiplying, many different ways of growing. If you cut a geranium twig and put it in the soil, it will grow roots and become a new plant, just like the original. In grafting, two plants are made to grow together as one. A well grafted tree has the good qualities of both original plants. The growing part of a tree is a layer of cells just below the bark. It is called the cambium and year by year the cambium adds rows of new cells around the outside of a treats trunk, branches and twigs. The miracle of grafting begins when we expose the cambium layer
