All band and 1-gallon plants are rooted cuttings and not grafted. In a true zone 7a winter (low of 5 to zero F), it's possible for some grafts to be damaged enough to ruin the plant. Therefore, ideally the graft should be just barely below grade. You can protect those planted at grade by shoving mulch over them for just the part of winter with temperatures below 10 degrees. Unnecessary mulching over the cane stubs can encourage disease. Most shrub roses will be hardy in zone 7a without protection.

Ron (Pinetree) asked me to post this (he's having login problems here): Root-grafting is common in virtually all forest trees, conifers and broadleaves. It occurs between roots of the same tree, roots of trees of the same species, and rarely, roots of trees of related species (like different white oak species). Grafts are functional, and transfer water, nutrients, hormones and carbohydrates; usually from less vigorous to dominant trees but in the other direction as well. "Living stumps", which add new wood layers annually, are kept alive by grafts to living trees, and can persist for many years. Root rot fungi have been transmitted from diseased to healthy conifers and fungus spores (like oak wilt) through wood cells of oaks. via Resin

I have grafted a lot of trees in recent years. I have tried different methods and my most successful is to have the rootstock planted (ground or pot) and graft when buds start to open. the mouse ear thing is fine as a guide but the window is not that narrow. Graft when you have time and the weather is good. I whip and tounge, and after matching the pieces up, I cut the scion to 2 buds before warping it. There are no dud buds, but I give it 2 in case I damaged one. so I get rid of the extra length to reduce the target area for birds, pets etc. and if it does get hit there is less leverage. Only failures out of 30-ish I had last year were bad looking scions in the first place. everything else took. Oh, plus I do doubles of anything I want to be sure of. Then give away the lesser looking ones.

To be honest, knowing the details and intricacies of how and why plants do what they do is only going to get you so far. I may understand the jargon of "active transport" "selective uptake" and how negative and positive feedback work in relation how living things regulate themselves, but when it comes down to real world applications, such as growing healthy and productive tomato plants, is really all that helpful? In short, no. Regardless of whether I have a grasp of these concepts or not, the tomato is going to do them anyways. All they are helpful for is 1. satisfying my curiosity (because I find them damned interesting) and 2. help me formulate a theory on what may and may not work in my own garden. I like gardening because I like the taste of a real, ripe tomato, and I like witnessing the creation of life, from seed to seed. I love gardening because I love the science and experimentation of it. But, experiments are great only if you can live with the fact you may NOT get that ripe tomato after all your efforts. Experience, on the other hand, gives you another tool in the toolbox, and possibly a much more important one. I can formulate all the theories based on book smarts I want, but that doesn't mean they are correct (and I may end up without tomatoes, sadly). BUT! If we have the experience to go along with it, we can run our theories through the rigors of "the real life method," knowing what ACTUALLY works instead of just what we THINK will work. With 50 years of experience, I imagine you are far more successful in growing tomatoes than I am. Even though I can tell you why I believe your theories as to why you are successful are correct or incorrect, the fact of the matter is, you still get the results. And results, as you said, are what really counts (not that there is nothing to be learned from failure, but success is far sweeter don't you think?) I am going to apologize, yet again, because when I read this in the morning it's not going to say at all what I am trying to get across. I probably had a few too many Coors than I should have before getting on the internet. Some of us never learn from our barracks and college days lol. This post was edited by ZachS on Sun, Jan 11, 15 at 0:02