264 



SEPTEIMBEE WOEK IN THE ELOWEE-GAEDEN. 



[O make the most of 'wliat little earth-heat and sun-heat 

 we shall have now that the summer is declining, the 

 amateur should propagate whatever he is likely to need 

 stock of next year of roses, geraniums, fuchsias, and 

 other subjects that require a long period of growth 

 before they flower. Those who have manetti rose stocks should lose 

 no time in getting them budded as close to the ground as possible, by 

 first removing the soil from the side of the row, so as to give more 

 room for the operation, which is to be performed in precisely the 

 same way as described in our recent paper on budding the brier. As 

 during winter, pits, frames, and houses are generally overcrowded, 

 propagate nothing of questionable merit. Look over the geraniums 

 and fuchsias, and determine which best suit your purpose and your 

 taste, and secure a few of those first. In making cuttings, take 

 short lengths of growing wood ; three or four joints will suffice in 

 any case, and make better plants than large cuttings ; remove only 

 so many leaves from the base of the cutting as will allow of it being 

 fixed firmly where it is to make its first roots. Fuchsias do best 

 when the cuttings are very small, and from the points of growing 

 shoots, each cutting taken at a joint, the two lowest leaves removed, 

 the cuttings dibbled into sand, then sprinkled with water and covered 

 with a bell-glass, and put in a frame or greenhouse, and kept shady 

 till they root. A quick method is to smear the outside of the bell- 

 glass with a mixture of clay and water, which will give shade 

 enough, and the pans can then be placed in the sun, or where the 

 sun will shine on them for an hour or two if needful. All they 

 really need is ^0 he loo'ked at everyday; the cultivator's eye has a 

 power in it, and without that charm they can come to no good. All 

 the scarlet geraniums make stout plants if short cuttings are put in 

 the open border in the full sun during July and August ; but at this 

 late period of the season where but a few dozen are wanted, it is as 

 well to prepare thumb pots by filling the pots one-third with small 

 crocks, and the remainder any clean loam and sand, about equal 

 quantities of each, well mixed together. Eill the pots, water them 

 so as to soak the soil thoroughly, and then proceed to prepare the- 

 cuttings. If the plants are in beds, cuttings may be taken of side- 

 shoots, so as not to spoil their appearance; and it matters not 

 whether they are of hard ripe wood or young shoots that have not 

 yet flowered; either will root quickly, and if well managed be quite 

 strong before the winter. Eemove only one or two of the lowest 

 leaves and their footstalks, so as to have at least an inch of clear stem 

 at the bottom. Eix these firmly, one in each pot; sprinkle them so- 

 as to wet the leaves, and place them on a back shelf in a sunny 

 greenhouse, or, in the absence of such accommodation, in any hot 

 sunny place you have, as under a south wall on a bed of coal-ashes, 

 or in a sunny window. "When they have filled their pots with roots, 

 shift them into what are called 60-sized pots, and in those pots let 

 them pass the winter. The most useful varieties to propagate for 



