174 



THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN OUIDE. 



is given. Mine stands at the further 

 end of the house, across the end of 

 the path, so that it occupies no room 

 80 to speak, and cannot be in the way. 

 I have spoken of cuttings in four-inch 

 pots, but my usual practice is to put 

 the cuttings separately in thumb pots, 

 so that they want no more shifting 

 till they have filled those pots with 

 roots ; and that is the plan I recom- 

 mend all our readers to adopt in pro- 

 pagating at this time of year. By 

 this method fifty to sixty plants are 

 produced at each turn of the case, and 

 there is no difficulty about getting up 

 a stock of a thousand or more of any 

 one particular subject, if needful. 



In a case of this kind, heated by 

 sun-heat only, fuchsias, heliotropes, 

 verbenas, petunias, almost anj'thing 

 in fact, except geraniums, can be 

 rooted to perfection in about ten 

 days. The cuttings are preferred 

 rather small ; they are potted firm in 

 a mixture of peat, silver-sand, or 

 leaf-mould alone, or cocoa dust alone. 

 When the case is filled, they are 

 lightly sprinkled, and the glasses put 

 on close. While the sun shines on 

 the case the glass is covered M-ith a 

 piece of calico or tifl'any, which is re- 

 moved as soon as the danger of injury 

 from sunshine is past. All the regular 

 attention they have is to be loolced at 

 daily. If not looked at, some might 

 perish, though if left shut up for a 

 week there would be very few losses, 

 unless the case was either very wet 

 or very dry. It is very seldom my 

 cuttings get anything more than one 

 light sprinkle of water after being 

 put in till the time to take them oitt 

 again. You may always know when 

 cuttings are well rooted by the bright 

 colour of the little leaves at the tip, 

 and the signs of growth visible. They 

 may then come out, and be put in 

 a damp shady place. Close beside 

 my case in the lean-to, one light is 

 shaded with two thicknesses of tiffany, 

 and there is a space of the border 

 covered with cocoa-nut dust on which 

 the little pots are placed, and where 

 generally the young plants remain 

 till they have nearly filled their pots 

 •with roots. They are then hardened 

 by placing them in a shady place out 

 of doors, or on the floor of the house; 



anywhere in fact, except where they 

 might be roasted. After a week of 

 hardening, they are ready for a 

 shift, and by tliat time there is an- 

 other batch coming out of the case. 



Now, one use of such a case or 

 box is that you are prepared at any 

 moment to strike a cutting of any- 

 thing. Let there be but one pot, or 

 fifty in the box, it is all the same as 

 to the certainty that, if done properly, 

 roots will come in time. But now let 

 us consider the doing of the same 

 work on a larger scale. Bave you 

 any small frames ? They are invalu- 

 able, and, for summer propagating, 

 far preferable to anything large. I 

 have some very neat substantial little 

 frames, four feet by two feet, a foot 

 deep in front, and eighteen inches 

 deep at back, which can in an instant 

 be carried anywhere ; and they take 

 one hundred cuttings each at a time, 

 allowing as much room as cuttings of 

 roses require, and they are the very 

 best of all contrivances to strike rose 

 cuttings in. You are of course aware 

 that, at this time of year, a frame is 

 a hothouse by day and a warm green- 

 house by night. The best way to use 

 these frames is to make up a raised 

 bed of cocoa-nut dust or leaf-mould, 

 or any light material in which cut- 

 tings will root quickly. Tread it 

 firm, put on the frames to form the 

 three sides of a square, and dibble 

 the cuttings into the soil of the 

 frames, water them in, and keep 

 pretty close and shaded till they 

 root. People who want to multiply 

 their roses, fuchsias, petunias, hardy 

 evergreen shrubs, fanciful herbaceous 

 plants, ivies, chrysanthemums, etc., 

 etc., have only to go to work as soon 

 as they have read this, and, instead of 

 buying plants by dozens, they may 

 produce them free of cost by hun- 

 dreds and thousands. 



There is another way of using 

 frames for propagating now. Get 

 some glazed pans of from four inches 

 to a foot in diameter, the larger the 

 better. If pans are not to be had, 

 use large pots, and take care to stop 

 the holes with corks. Fill these pans 

 or pots nearly full with a mixture of 

 leaf-mould, peat broken to the size 

 of hazel nuts, with all the dust, and 



