I have rooted hardy wild rose stock for grafting varieties onto. I am looking for rooted heirloom roses--particularly ones with rosehips. I'm particularly fond of climbing roses. Thanks, Mid Tn Mama

About 15 years ago A couple I know from central FL. did this with several different varieties grafted onto one bush. They called it "Slick Willy". Weird looking thing. Didn't last long.

Should be okay, a graft is a graft. One cultivar may take over eventually, but that could happen whether the bud union is above or below ground.

R. Multiflora is hardy to zone 4b, and Dr.Huey-rootstock is hardy to zone 6b. Dr.Huey-roostock can live forever in my zone 5 since its roots is at the end of a long-stick (1 foot deep), so it can survive deep underground while the upper-own-root dies. The temp. at DEEP underground is 32 F, while the above temp. is -20 F in my zone 5a. The secret of Dr.Huey's living forever is its roots are at the end of a long stick to be at 32 F underground. I saw only one multiflora shoot appearing at local library, versus countless Dr.Huey-taking over. Leaves are acidic when not fully decomposed, so I consider that peat (Peat forms when dead plants are not fully decomposed). Once time I buried a bunch of leaves underground when I fixed the planting hole of Wise Portia. IT GOT WORSE !! I dug that up and the leaves turned into pitch-black & acidic peat. Wise Portia as own-root hates it (it likes alkaline with dark-green leaves). Multiflora-roostock can take acidic leaves on top better than grafted-on-Dr.Huey or own-roots. Multiflora-species thrive in high-rain & acidic soil. But Dr.Huey was bred in dry & alkaline CA. Back in 1998 I winter-protected a dozen hybrid-teas (grafted on Dr.Huey) with acidic maple leaves (not decomposed to neutral pH). They all got black canker & died through the winter. But my neighbor's dozen hybrid-teas (grafted-on-Dr.Huey) were winterized with dry & alkaline wood-chips and they survived winter great. Own-roots absolutely hate acidic leaves on top when their roots mature to be chunky & woody like Dr.Huey. When I winterized 10th-year-own-root Golden Celebration with leaves, it was only 4" tall in spring & gave me 4 lousy blooms for spring flush. So this 11th-year winter, I switched to DRY & ALKALINE wood-chips, and Golden Celebration had over 1 foot of green cane, with 20+ blooms for spring flush (in only 4 hrs. of sun). Multiflora-rootstock prefers loamy soil since it's a cluster root (spaghetti strands), versus big-fat & woody chunky Dr.Huey for dense & thick clay. Multiflora-rootstock declines in my salty & dense & alkaline clay. Dense clay need a thicker-stick like Dr.Huey to push through. Here in rock-hard & dense alkaline clay (similar to CA), Dr.Huey-rootstock is the choice but folks plant it so deep that Dr. Huey lives forever.