Re: 3 roses in a hole

Nan Sterman wrote:
I've only been scanning this thread so if this has already been said, please forgive me.

The idea of three plants in a hole is not new. This is common practice with fruit trees, especially those in the prunus family (peach, plum, nectarine, etc). You plant three trees in the space that one would take up and then prune them to keep them in check. It works best if you prune in summer as that somewhat limits' the trees' photosynthesis and keeps them smaller than they would normally grow.

This really does interest me as it is quite common here to graft three or even more varieties of apple or pear on one rootstock.

Though I have grown some myself and many times pruned such constructs for other people I have never considered them entirely satisfactory. No matter how you try to balance up the growth the topmost graft seems to become dominent, commonly reducing the varieties lower down to one or two feeble branches only, which may produce the necessary pollen for cross fertilization, but almost never themselves have more than negligeble crops. I should think the three trees in one hole would tend to grow much more evenly.

Moira

--
Tony & Moira Ryan,
Wainuiomata, North Island, NZ. Pictures of our garden at:-
http://mywebpages.comcast.net/cherie1/Garden/TonyandMoira/index.htm
NEW PICTURES ADDED 4/Feb/2004

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