麻豆社

Pollinator insects like wasps and bees are drawn to camellia nectar, so camellia seeds are usually not identical to the parent plant. To create more plants of a registered camellia variety, vegetative propagation is used. Like most camellia enthusiasts, Ms. Jewel was an expert at rooting new plants from cuttings and grafting new plants onto rootstocks. In fact, many of the plants along the camellia trail were rooted or grafted by her.   

 This stop is about grafting—a process that connects the vascular tissues of one plant to another. To graft, the healthy rootstock plant is cut to about 8” above the ground, and young shoots of the desired variety are inserted into the stem so their xylem and phloem tissues align. When successful, the shoots of the new variety connect to the original plant’s roots.  If you look closely, you can often see the point where the two plants were joined.