Nice going!! I hope they grow out well for you. I'm like you I have to force myself to think about temperature, callusing, and all that with both rooting and grafting. It's more natural to think technique and getting the wood stored properly. But it all has to come together to work.

Generally you want to bud on to smaller shoots, so there is never a "trunk" above the graft point. Buds don't take reliably if the shoot is more than 2x the diameter of the bud. If you want to bud on to an existing tree, pick a part of the tree you want the new variety to take over and put the bud there. Everything above the bud needs to be removed after it takes or the bud will not sprout. Well, you may be able to get it to sprout by notching but if it is not in a dominant position it will never grow to good size, and so the stuff above probably needs to be removed to make the bud more dominant. Never put a bud too low on a tree even if you are going to let it be dominant on the little shoot you grafted it to: if there are too many big limbs nearby it will never win the race. Sometimes there is no good small shoot to bud onto, and in that case you need to remove a bigger shoot and do a bark or cleft graft, generally in spring with a dormant scion (in theory you can bark graft with a this-seasons budwood stick but I haven't had super good luck with that in my attempts thus far). Scott

My greenhouse is kept at 60F lows in the winter, rarely goes much above that during the day, and although my species and hybrid Phals do alright at that temp, they don't really like it. Most Phals prefer warm to hot temperatures and do best in the 70-90F range. But they make it through my 60F winter nights, although the spikes on the hybrids usually are delayed as they slow down and even stop growing until the temps get warmer. The species Phals usually bloom in the summer and don't spike during the coldest months anyhow so that is not an issue. My suggestion to you is to keep them as warm as you can. 50F is definitely too low, even 60F is a bit low to keep them completely happy. But put them in the warmest location you have in the house and let it go from there. They should do okay and grow for you. (Don't go by the house thermostat but rather check the high and low temps exactly where the plants are) Arthur, I leave my lindenii (and wilsonii) outdoors all winter down to just a tad above freezing, and keep them in the air-conditioned house during the summer heat. These are cool-growers and will croak if kept with other Phal species and hybrids in warm temps.

Patrick I love apricot color roses, I initially thought about Dudley Cross. I haven't grown it, but I heard it does well in our area. Then I had a better thought....how about Jude the Obscure? An Austin, not an old tea rose, but I think it would meet all your criteria. It is the right color, an amazing fragrance, it grows into a nice bush, and seems pretty impervious to blackspot. I may spray it once or twice during the season, but I think I could easily grow it no-spray. Ooh, the fragrance...when it is in bloom, people just stop in front of the house and enjoy. It's my favorite rose, I call him my faithful friend Jude Are you feeling enabled yet? (turnabout is fair play!) Basil