THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 205 



lowest leaf should be removed, as shown by the figure in the " Rose 

 Book," page 251. The soft tops of shoots should either be cut off 

 and thrown away or should be carefully struck in the same way that 

 soft bedding plants are, in pans filled with sand, in a rather strong, 

 moist heat. But the cuttings we have especially in view, consisting 

 (say) of young wood as thick as a goose quill, in lengths of four 

 to six joints each, the lowest leaf only removed, will not require 

 heat, but will quickly make root if planted thickly in a bed of sandy 

 soil, or even in a bed of coeoanut-fibre, and kept close and moist, 

 without ever being very wet, or in a hot, stifling atmosphere. 



To make own-root roses from buds is not quite so easy as to 

 make them from cuttings. But it is not difficult — at all events, we 

 have never found it difficult — to raise roses in this way and supply 

 the trade with them by the thousand. The first step is to obtain a 

 lot of precisely the same sort of buds as would be required for bud- 

 ding briers. The next thing is to prepare them in the same way, 

 without removing the wood or the leaves. The wood, indeed, may 

 be removed, but it is waste of time to remove it; but if the leaf is 

 removed the bud will simply die. Having secured buds cut in the 

 fashion of shields, without removing the wood, and, above all things, 

 without removing the leaf that each must have when cut, plant these 

 buds firmly in pans filled with sand, or on a bed of light loam covered 

 with sand over a mass of fermenting material, or in a common frame. 

 All the leaves must stand up and be kept fresh by frequent sprink- 

 ling, but there must be no slopping of water amongst the buds, or 

 they will rot ; in fact, any excess of moisture will ruin the best 

 planned project for propagating roses with equal certainty and 

 rapidity with the total abandonment of the cuttings or buds to 

 drought, by an act of forgetfulness or intentional rose-murder. 



To propagate by layers is the easiest plan of all ; but it is impos- 

 sible to make many roses in this way, because two or three are the 

 utmost number obtainable from a shoot, whereas by cuttings or buds 

 a strong shoot will furnish material for from twelve to twenty plants. 

 But certainty may well compensate for lack of quantity with many 

 readers ; and our advice to lovers of roses who cannot see their way 

 clear to strike cuttings, is to make layers of them in July and August 

 in precisely the same way as carnations and picotees are layered. 

 Lastly, but not leastly : If you will wait until the middle of Septem- 

 ber, you may then begin to multiply roses by what we have designated 

 "the currant-tree system." To make short work of the subject, we 

 may remark that roses may be struck from cuttings precisely as cur- 

 rant-trees are struck ; but the business should be attended to while 

 the roses yet have green leaves upon them. Many try this system 

 and fail. It is all their own fault, for they allow the proper season 

 to pass by, and suddenly make a rush at the propagating when the 

 season for the work is past. From the middle of September to the 

 end of October is the proper time for the practice of the currant-tree 

 system of multiplying roses, and if the work is well done then, eighty 

 per cent, of the cuttings will root. People who are blessed with a 

 spirit of patience and perseverance may continue, or begin, to put in 

 cuttings of roses in the open ground or in frames all through the 



