FEBRUARY 17. 1SSI8. 



The Weekly Florists^ Review* 



501 



and again those which have a tendency 

 to go more to runners than flowers; 

 others again whicli rnn to small flow- 

 ers; some to slim stems, and so many 

 of sui'h things that a successful grower 

 notes, as he picks his flowers and 

 works among his plants. The fact is. 

 that, to a certain extent, the careful 

 grower feels that his stock to work 

 from (or. rather, the stock he prefers 

 most to propagate) is quite limited. 



I think one of the reasons that we 

 find so many growing violets with so 

 little satisfaction can largely be laid 

 to the door of hurried, careless propa- 

 gation. In cutting the runners for the 

 propagating bed. do not make them too 

 long, as is frequently the temptation; 

 one joint lielow the t nd is ample, other- 

 wise the roots will be far away from 

 the plant, and you will find it detri- 

 mental in the dry. hot summer weath- 

 er, if not before. 



You will find a few sufficiently root- 

 ed to prick out in flats (or pots, as yon 

 may prefer), as soon as taken off. but 

 the most of them will have to be placed 

 in a well firmed propagating bench of 

 coarse sand, with a moderate bottom 

 heat, but plenty of fresh, cool air over- 

 head. Keep well sprayed with cool 

 water, and you will be surprised at the 

 rapidity with w'hich they will strike 

 root. 



Do not let your spring work cause 

 you to neglect to remove them from 

 the bench as soon as they are ready, 

 because that is one of the sure roads to 

 failure, or at least semi-failure, to fu- 

 ture good success. They want to be 

 pricked out just as soon as they are 



House of the new Pink CarnatiDn, IV rs. Francis Jocst, at IVIr. C. CesDld's, IVCineDia, N. Y. 



struck, or else they become starved, 

 getting hard and yellow, and stunted 

 in their beginning, with the result that 

 they are never what they should be, 

 neither will they give the proper re- 

 sults. Of course they must be shaded 

 for a few days after pricking out, and 

 given plenty of cool, fresh air. Care 

 must be taken also not to allow them 

 o dry out and wilt, or they will lose 

 11 their vitality, and you will have to 

 lait with a new batch. 



R. E. SHUPHSLT. 



ROSE NOTES. 



Propagating. 



It is an excellent time now to propa- 

 gate your rose stock for next summer's 

 planting. As is well known I am not 

 a professed professor on roses, growing 

 but one or two houses, but in rooting 

 them I have been uniformly successful 

 and can see no reason why anyone 

 should fail. Remember, if your stock 



s weakly, without vigor, and you have 

 eason to complain with truth that 

 our roses are a failure, then don't per- 

 petuate your own stock. It will pay 

 you a hundred fold to buy good, strong, 

 healthy stock of a man who has grown 

 fine roses. Give him what he asks for 

 good stock; two cents on a 3-inch pot 

 plant, may seem a consideration if you 

 are buying a thousand, but it is noth- 

 ing; one good bud on each plant will 

 make it up three times over. I find a 

 tea rose, particularly in January, Feb- 

 ruary and March, takes in a bottom 

 heat of 65 degrees and the house about 

 50 degrees, 18 to 25 days to root, and 

 we do not lose more than we do of 

 agerattim, which is none. 



There is great difference of opinion 

 about the size of the cutting, or rath- 

 er the number of eyes. Every cutting 

 should have two eyes, and if good wood 

 was in abundance there would be no 

 objection to three eyes, but two will 

 do. Cut just below the eye and .-tr:p 

 off the leaf, leaving the top leaf intact, 

 or if that is very large, the top lobe of 

 that can be cut off. I saw a bed ot rose 

 cuttings a few days ago that was fear- 

 ful to behold. It half the cuttings had 

 been pulled out the sand would have 

 still been invisible. If fungus, rot and 

 everything else does not get into that 

 jungle it will be marvelous, and it was 

 a place where they have been trying to 

 grow roses for the past 7 or S years. 

 You can put the cuttings fairly close, 

 as you would anything else, but leave 

 a little space for daylight and air. 



When they have made a root of half 

 an inch they should be potted and 

 given the same temperature, or a lit- 

 tle higher than the house they have 

 been rooted in. This potting them just 

 as soon as rooted is a good rule for 

 most all cuttings, but particularly is it 

 for roses, as the roots when allowed to 

 grow long in the sand grow wiry and 

 useless, and when an inch or so long 

 easily break off when removing them 

 from the sand. 



The much discussed question wheth- 

 er a cutting should be taken from a 

 blind shoot or the flowering shoot, is 

 perhaps not yet settled to the satisfac- 

 tion of everyljody. There is a wide dif- 

 ference between qualities of ulind 

 wood. If it Is stout and firm it is just 

 as good as the wood from a flowering 

 shoot, but if spindling and weak it is 

 not fit to use for future stock. It seems 

 that a man should know by instinct 

 when the wood is in the proper condi- 



