You're welcome, Lyna! Yes ma'am, each one HAS its own personality. It's observing them then determining what other "personalities" you want to mate them to that's part of the fun of breeding. If your cuttings are rotting, they're too wet. Whether that's due to too heavy soil, watering them too frequently or having too high humidity due to covering them, something is keeping them too wet, so they rot. If they shrivel, they're usually drying out. I'd not had success rooting roses in my new climate until I ran across the wrapping method, which I termed "Burrito Method" and detailed on my blog below. Like all the other methods, it requires tweaking to get it set just right for your specific conditions, but once you get the hang of it, the method works! A few months ago, I received bud wood of a rose I'd sought, from a lovely lady in Northern California. The wood was quite thin and I didn't know what exactly I could do with it. I had stocks rooted, so I tried budding it, then took what wasn't really suitable and tried a modified method of rooting. It was actively growing, and it was warm, so the wrapping method wouldn't work. I treated them as I would any cuttings, then planted them very deeply in seed starter mix, in gallon cans and placed them under other potted roses where they would have higher humidity, some filtered sun, but protection from the real heat and extreme sun. Most failed, but a few ARE rooted! Many of the buds also failed, but some are remaining green after a few months and appear to be successful. I figured by planting them deep, so most of the cutting length was immersed in cool, damp soil, they wouldn't dry out. It's what I do with callused cuttings out of the wraps, and it works perfectly with them. With only an inch or so of cutting poking out of the soil, and only a leaf or two remaining on them, they could provide some photosynthesis to help carry them along until roots formed. Once it begins raining, I will transplant them from their communal pots, lifting them to the level I want them to grow. Until then, I'll let them continue forming roots. The rains will help to harden them off so they won't be lost to being subjected to too high heat, too brilliant sun and too dry conditions too quickly. I'm also getting ready to break the tops of the root stocks so the foliage will remain attached to help keep them fed, but much of the sap flow will be interrupted so it is directed into the inserted buds, forcing them to begin growing. I use both the traditional "T" budding method and Burling's Chip Budding Method on several different root stocks so I hedge my bet with whatever I have and want to insure takes. Using several methods helps spread the risk of loss so chances of success improve dramatically. I use VI IXL, Cardinal Hume and Sequoia's Pink Clouds. I should also obtain some VI Dr. Huey and VI Ragged Robbin. I had the Ragged Robin VI from the Heritage Rose Garden, but lost it. I also have Dr. Manner's VI Fortuniana. It's finally put out enough thicker growth to provide some decent stocks next spring, so I'll probably start messing with budding to it then. If I have material I want to reproduce in the appropriate window here for rooting; I know it roots OK and grows OK own root; and it is of the appropriate condition for wrapping, I will wrap it. If it's summer, hence hotter (too hot for wrapping) and the material is actively growing, I'll try budding it. Whatever remains which isn't suitable for budding, I'll strike as cuttings to see if something works. But, if you wait until you have what you've been looking for, forever, to learn how to make the methods you want to use, work, you're guaranteed to fail. Murphy assures that. It's like waiting until the day before you take your world cruise to buy your new, elaborate camera you have absolutely no idea how to use. You're doomed. Rooting and budding are about equally as easy to learn. The hardest part is determining you are NOT going to allow it to overwhelm you. If it doesn't work, don't get frustrated. Put on your diagnostician's hat, figure out WHY it didn't so you can fix the problems, then get back on that horse to show it who's boss. Kim Here is a link that might be useful: Wrapping cuttings

Thank you Citrusenthusiast, funny you should say that about phytopthera - I am also in the throes of despair about one of my chile plants that went from fine to completely wilted (and now pulled out) overnight. The most likely reason is indeed Phytopthera, as far as I can gather from what I've read (am on the hot chile forum about this as well). But it seems to be a slightly different strain/species of Phytopt. than the one you mention, but I'm not sure. Someone on the pepper forum also suggested Pythium, which I am now researching. I haven't noticed sap leaking from the bark, but I certainly wasn't looking for it either. We have had a very wet winter, and now, although it is supposed to be summer, we are having some rainstorms as I type. This does not bode well for anything infected with Phytopthera, as far as I can gather. Looks like I'll have to try the bark removal with lesoin burning as well as some copper spray, as recommended on that site - thanks for the link, it is very informative. I have 2 more citrus trees in my very small garden, one a newly acquired Tahiti lime, and the other a rather strange very large, very thick pithed(?) one. My paranoia of cross-infection is growing by the minute! I am also staring to wonder whether this disease has not been lurking in the garden for a while... Last year I was away for quite a while during summer and when I returned all my tomatoes were looking dreadful, all leaves wilted but fruit still on. I first assumed that the person taking care of the garden might not have done such a good job, and then wondered whether that is the natural way once tomatoes have done their thing. Now I'm thinking that it looked suspiciously like what just happened to my one chile plant. I'm sure it's clear that I am still very new to veggie and fruit gardening, and I guess the very cramped urban space is not helping (think I might have a few too many plants in here). I'm not doing very well at posting single pictures, so think that if you click on the link in my previous post and look around, you can also see my sadly departed chile, if interested. (think the subalbum chile plants shows closer views of the damage) And yes, holding thumbs is the equivalent of crossing fingers, as far as I know. Think it comes from the Afrikaans which would have come from the Dutch - 'hou duimvas'. thanks again for your advice, it is much appreciated.

Bob, most citrus varieties from seed have a long 'juvenile period'. This means, for many years, the plant is incapable of blooming. The plants have to grow 'up'. Lemons, oranges and grapefruit often have to grow for 10 years or so before the growth finally achieves adequate maturity to form blooms. That usually means growing to a height of 8 to 15 feet in height. Then the topmost growth (furthest distance from the seed) will bloom. You can Google 'citrus node count' to find out more. You have to stop shearing the top of your tree, or it will never achieve that maturity up there. OR, 1) you can take a bud from one of the topmost branches (this is likely the closest to becoming mature growth) and graft it lower down onto the same tree, or to another rootstock (say another small lemon seedling). OR 2) You can take a cutting from the topmost portion of the plant and root it. It 'remembers' its maturity level and will continue to grow and mature until it finally reaches that magical 'node count' where it is capable of blooming and bearing -- hopefully at a much smaller size. Here's a way to keep the size down by continuously taking cuttings and grow them until the growth gets mature: Here's a diagram I did about node counts:

I too am interested in grafting a "friendship" tree. I understand citrus overload, I was absent from this thread for a while because the bugs, leaf drop, etc. made me rethink how easy it is to grow citrus in pots up here. Now that it is under control and my citrus collection has been parred down to include only what I like, I am selective in my citrus choices. To that end I want to graft over my Cocktail grapefruit, I have harvested 4 this month and the flavour is not good. I am assuming it is the soil, light, and temperature conditions, but, there is no point in growing what doesn't do well. I looked at the compatibility chart jonmerr posted, my question is, it shows that grapefruit is compatible with mandarine as a rootstock, can mandarine be compatible as a graft on my grapefruit. Or am I tilting at windmills?