I think what you are talking about is called "grafting" but I don't know how to do it myself. I hope someone who knows more about it can give you an answer.

Thanks you for answering seil :)
But i do not mean traditonal "grafting" when one take a rose and graft it to a stock, i want to fuse whole rosebushes with roots, stock and everything togheter so the stock gets bigger, so that many small rosebushes become one big mighty "tree". I dont know if i am good at explaining what i mean...

I really hope someone can answer this, couse if its possible one can make a really big rose bonsai in a short while :)

I used to make bonsai when I lived in Houston Texas. I know what you mean by fusing.
Most rose stems don't fuse. It may be because of the timing of the growth and fungal problems roses are susceptible to.
When soft wood stems are green, many roses will develop cankers when that wood's surface is broken. When the stems are two years old you will see some interesting lines on the stems, but, again, there's a susceptibility to fungal cankers. After the stems are woody (usually year 3) they could be brought together and would start to make some overgrowths of the adjacent stems.

I doubt that three years is in your 'fast' short while.

There are some very interesting bark patterns in roses. R. roxbergii has a mature bark pattern that peels back like crepe myrtle bark. I've thought that it would make a good informal (moyogi) style bonsai.

Rosa banksia will make a mature wood and the 'bark' is a reddish brown material that looks like wood shavings.

One problem with roses is getting the thorns to appear miniature. The thorn size may mean that R. laevigata won't work although the strength of the roots would support all sorts of interesting forms.

For real 'miniature' blooms and leaves, you might want to see if the so-called micro-mini roses are available in your area. Blooms are classic Hybrid Tea in shape but smaller than 2cm in lenght.

Ann

Thank you Ann -- I was also thinking that Dreamcast was talking about grafting or budding, but the real subject is far more interesting!

Jeri

Thank you Ann! very good information :)

I will try with two of the smaller rosebonsai tree's, they can take all the time they want, and if no fusing happens maybe atleast the roots will get all tangled up over time.

So then when i replant it, i will raise the plants a couple of inches every time and expose more and more of the roots, this way the roots will become the stem of the tree and get bark, and belive me it looks very impresive only with one plant, i cant imagaine how it would look with 2 or even more plants tangelt up.

I have many rosebushes that i done this with (raised the roots), and they have some amazing shapes, and as Ann said the bark is very impresive looking, and over time even some deadwood have aperd, witch looks great in contrast to the flowers, leafs and reddish bark.

I have another question someone maybe can help me with, i collected 5 rosebushes in my mother's garden lite over a year ago, they all died back to the stock after the transplant to pots, new growth came after a few weeks, but this time it was not the big leafs and the big white/pink roses, but instead small very dark green leafs and very small blood red roses (the classic rose, but in miniature)

First i was thinking that they where the original wild roses from the stock, but i have never seen classic blood red roses in miniature as wild roses, they are often pink and more flower looking i belive?

Any idea of what genetics these roses can be?

I am offcourse very very happy this happend, it gave more scale to the tree's as bonsai's.

Dreamcast, I'd love to see photos of those roses, and to know what the original rootstock was.

Where are you located, and what rootstocks are used commonly in your area? I only know what has been used in the U.S., so I'm left guessing.

Jeri (Very curious)

You might have to use all the same cultivar or species. Because the strongest cultivar or species might "win" and outgrow the others, leaving one big part and some small weak parts.

This can be seen in fruit trees that are sold as "four-in-one": four different apples (for example) grafted onto one trunk. Eventually the most vigorous variety of apple takes over and the others die off.

There are some "fusing" experts who take several trees and grow them together to create sculptures such as chairs, ladders, cages. You mean something like this (link). I think you could do this with roses. Keeping them free of disease would be important.

Here is a link that might be useful: bonsai

Jeri,.. I would love to show some pictures, when spring is here i will take some photos. (everything is coverd with snow at the moment)

I live in scandinavia, i think they use somekind of wild rosestock here (since it is very resistent to cold), and then they graft other rose genetics to it. But i have no idea what kind they use, and the roses i collected where very old, and have been there long before my mother moved in, i will try to find some rose interested people here and ask them, maybe they know something....

Hoovb,.. that's exactly what i want to do, but with roses.
I have done something like that with peppers to, and it workt very well.
But the question is if the stocks of roses would fuse togheter only by being tied togehetr as those ficus plants, or if i should carv of some bark till i reach the thin green layer under it, doing this on each of the stocks and then press those areas of each stock togheter, and they tie everything togheter, do you understand what i mean?
Iam not so good at explaning stuff couse of my bad english...

Thanks for all answers, looks like i picked the right forum to join :)

Dreamcast, your English is fine! The green layer you refer to is the cambium layer. It is the circulatory system of the plant and is the layer you need to have good contact with for budding to succeed. It is also the layer which forms callus and roots. I use a rooting method utilizing wrapping cuttings in damp newspaper and had a few of the climber Pink Clouds do what you're asking when I unwrapped them the other day. I had disbudded them, all but the top two buds, so I could root them for use as root stock. They were tightly wrapped in the damp paper and a few actually began growing together where cambium to cambium contact was held tightly. If you want to try creating that thicker trunk as you've described, you could carefully remove the bark in areas of cuttings, then bind them together securely, making sure the cambium layers are in very good contact with each other. You might use what you've found as the root stock there as it's obviously hardy enough for you. Once you have the trunk formed, you could then bud or graft another type of rose on it to form the other elements you desire, or allow it to grow the way you want.

I'd practice on the layering together, or "grafting" if you prefer, first to create the look for the trunk you desire. You already have the rose material. Give it a try. It can't hurt! Kim

About the roses that changed color--these were grafted roses. The scion or upper grafted section died, and what you have left is the root-stock variety. The root-stock does not need to be a wild species rose, but may be a hybrid variety. There are a couple of dark red roses that have been used as root-stocks in the U.S., but I have not heard of any such being used in Europe, so perhaps it was an isolated local usage. You could ask local rose gardeners if they know the name.

fusing plants together, whole plants, is still a form of grafting called approach grafting. It sometimes occurs naturally (inosculation) and has been much in use to create arbours of hornbeam (carpinus) and lime (tilia). Never tried any bonsai growing but feel it is probably only a matter of time till i get around to it.

Thank you Kim! I have selected 4 big root stock's with the same minitaure dark red roses growing on them, so they should be of the same kind, when spring is here i will try and fuse all the root stocks togheter to create one mighty big root stock, and then year by year i will raise the roots, hopefully it will become a very big and cool rose bonsai :)

Michaelg,.. Thank you for that info, i will try my best to find out what kind these roses are.

Campanula,.. Thank you so much for that info, there is very little info or pictures of roses as bonsai on the web, but i found this (Link) if you or someone else are interested in seeing a very nice rose bonsai in its early stage :)

A cople of other good pics i found.

https://secure.flickr.com/photos/bagdadcafe/1523621938/

http://www.phoenixbonsai.com/BigPicture/LessUsual.html
(Scroll down a bit and there is a picture of a great rose bonsai)

Here is a link that might be useful: Rose Bonsai

Dreamcast, you need to fly to Southern California now and shop at our "home improvement" stores. What you linked looks very much like the one gallon, "cull", pushed bare root roses being sold now in bud and bloom for a few dollars. You could probably start with one of them and quickly turn it into the plant you desire it to be. Kim

Kim, i would gladly do that, to bad i live in europe :(
And guess they dont sell those and shipp international?

Here its rare to fint roses with big stocks for sale at nursery's.