Bonsai hawthorn oculating the special form of plant grafting.

Occulation can be used for the rosacea family, including apple, pear, quince, hawthorn, pink, cherry, mirabelle and sloe. In most cases, ornamental varieties are oculated to obtain more colorful and richer flowers and to obtain better fruit with intense fruit color. In addition, leaf size and leaf color can be positively influenced in this way and the plant itself becomes more resistant.

Beautiful and magnificent old hawthorns can be found in the wild. A hawthorn, on the other hand, can only be found in a tree nursery and then as a relatively young plant. By oculating all the branches of the hawthorn with the branches of the red hawthorn, a tree can be created whose trunk is still true hawthorn, but the branches become red hawthorn branches. The advantage: the redthorn flowers are much more abundantly, bears fruit for longer and is much more resistant to various diseases.

The wild apple is a plant that has quite large leaves, quickly becomes diseased and generally has difficulty flowering. Oculation with one of the numerous ornamental apple varieties (usually dwarf plants) produces a tree with rich and intensely colored flowers. The tree bears numerous fruits, has only small leaves (including red leaves) and is very resistant to diseases compared to the wild apple. When is this done? Oculation is usually carried out at the end of August. The first results can then be seen at the beginning of April when the first buds appear.

First of all, we need a few tools. We need pruning shears, an oculating knife and grafting tape. The rice we want to graft must be vigorously grown, should be about one year old and have a diameter of around seven to eight millimetres.

Now we can prepare the rice. To do this, first cut off all the leaves with scissors, leaving a leaf stalk of about three to five millimeters. Any remaining stem leaves can then simply be plucked off.

Now we can prepare the rootstock. The branch to be used as a rootstock should be one to two years old and have a diameter of around seven to eight millimetres. Here, too, we first remove the leaves and thorns. Now use the oculating knife to cut the branch down to the cambium.

Now we turn our attention back to the rice. We separate out a bud with the oculating knife and cut the rice at an angle to expose the cambium. It is important that the rice bud fits exactly into the cut of the rootstock and that cambium meets cambium. Only then can the rice grow.

Once the rice is perfectly in place, it is time to fix it. The rootstock with the inserted rice is carefully and tightly wrapped with grafting tape to allow the rice to grow in securely. If the remaining leaf stalk falls off by itself after about two weeks, this is a sure sign that the rice has grown securely into the rootstock.

The next step follows after winter. Before the buds begin to sprout, the rootstock must now be cut back to the rice bud with scissors. This provides the buds with sufficient nutrients for sprouting.

Finally, in summer, you can see whether the hawthorn has grown in well. At this point, the grafting tape can also be removed without hesitation.

Here you can see the development after oculating and the clear success. First a freshly oculated hawthorn and then the result after three to four years.

A very personal experiment was the oculation of this wild apple. Each individual branch of the wild apple was grafted with a different variety of ornamental apple. The picture shows the impressive result after just two years.