Most commonly, the shoot also known as the scion of a selected, desired plant cultivar is grafted onto another, known as the rootstock, in order to reproduce the exact characters of the desired plant. The rootstock can be a seedling-grown plant or a clone itself.

Grafting can only be done between reasonably closely related plants. Most often the limits of success are with other species in the same genus, though in some cases plants in different but closely related genera can graft successfully (e.g. Larch will graft on Douglas-fir), and in other cases, not, even between some species in the same genus (e.g., Norway maple will not graft on Sugar maple).

A curiosity sometimes done by gardeners is to graft related potatos and tomatos so that both are produced on the same plant, one aboveground and one underground.

See also: Fruit tree propagation for more on grafting and budding.