January 16, 1909 



HORTICULTUHE 



65 



Roses Under Glass 



I'liOl'AGATION 



Before filling in the sand, the propagating bench 

 should be thoroughly overhauled and repaired. Spaces 

 between the boards and places where the sand is likely 

 to run through should be covered with thin strips of 

 wood — laths, for instance, or caulked firmly with 

 sphagniun. See that the pijies underneath the bench 

 are in good condition as it is of utmost importance that 

 a uniform temperature be mnintained during the entii'e 

 period of root formation. 



Sand for roses should be clean and sharp, not too 

 gritty, and free from any decomposing matter. Some 

 growers prefer to sterilize tlieir sand, but with proper 

 care good results are obtainable from the ordinary ma- 

 terial. When tlie bench is filled moisten the sand well 

 and pound it down firm leaving a depth of abdiit four 

 inches. 



CUTTINGS 



About the style of cuttings so much has been said 

 that there remains very little to be added. A good 

 sized cutting with three or four eyes seems to have be- 

 come generally adopted, and as, in these push-and-go- 

 ahead days the desire is for a large plant in the shortest 

 possible time, the medium .is perhaps the best that could 

 be employed. 



In making the cutting use a sharp knife and cut clean 

 and short, almost straight across, as the smaller the 

 -wound the quicker will be the healing process and more 

 uniform the arrangement of the young roots. Keep the 

 wood and cuttings well moistened until the cuttings are 

 placed in the sand. 



About 1 inch apart in the row and from two to three 

 inches — as size of cuttings suggests — between the rows 

 will be close enough to place the cuttings. Overcrowd- 

 ing is often the cause of many of the cuttings decaying 

 in the sand, and should by all means be avoided. As 

 soon as a batch is inserted in the sand they should be 

 given a thorough watering and, if necessary, shaded. 



TEMPERATURE 



The temperature at wliich to maintain the sand is 

 rather an open question as some of the new varieties of 

 Toses do not take kindly to the treatment bestowed on 

 Chatenay or Richmond, for inst.ince. Most of the older 

 varieties strike well in a sand temperature of 62 degrees 

 with the house at 53 to 54 degrees, but until we have 

 learned a little m.ore about the habits of the new roses 

 we cannot say with any degree of certainty- that this 

 teni]H'rature is suited to them. 



SPRAYING AND WATERING 



Spray the cuttings frequently during bright weather, 

 as the moisture on the foliage is a great factor in help- 

 ing to produce a good and uniform strike. The cut- 

 tings are very sensitive to erratic watering, therefore a 

 careful examination of the sand previous to the per- 

 formance of this duty becomes 'absolutely necessary. 

 Leaves which mav fall from the cuttings should be re- 



moved as soon as they are noticed. If allowed to re- 

 main, a fungus growth quickly forms on them which, 

 spreading itself to the cuttings depletes their number in 

 an incredibly short time. Constant care and proper 

 treatment alone are contributable to the propagator's 

 success in bringing out a goodly percentage of well- 

 rooted cuttings. 



Lorraine Begonias 



The illustration shown on the cover page will give 

 readers of Horticulture a fair idea as to how the 

 society ladies of England like their greenhouse arranged. 

 In the house illustrated there were somewhere 

 over a thousand large plants used, besides hun- 

 dreds of hanging baskets. Nothing but the pink 

 Lorraine was used, and needless for me to say the effect 

 was simply bewildering to those who saw it for the first 

 time. This style of showhouse within recent years has 

 become remarkably popular in England. I am not 

 quite sure but I think that it was the late Baron Roths- 

 childs who first started the craze of devoting long ranges 

 of glass to one particular kind of flower. At Waddeson 

 ilanor, Buckinghamsliire, one of the most up-to-date 

 Ijnvate establishments in Britain, many original ideas 

 of this kind were carried out, and here it was where the 

 all one color idea got its start. 



I remember visiting a large establishment in the south 

 of England a few years ago, where over three tliousand 

 Lorraines were grown for show purposes alone. A long 

 range of five houses were entirely given up to them and 

 as usual the roof was completely hidden with hanging 

 baskets. It was there where I first saw the mirror ar- 

 rangement done to perfection. All the doors and parti- 

 tions of the houses were made so that they could be re- 

 moved when the begonias were brought indoors, and at 

 the extreme end of the range a clever arrangement of 

 mirrors gave one the impression of an endless house of 

 begonias. So cleverly were the mirrors arranged and so 

 perfect the deception that the visitor's reflection did not 

 appear on the glass until he was within two or three 

 yards from it. 



A sliow house of this description might to some ap- 

 pear to be too much of one thing to be appreciated, but 

 somehow I think that a range of glass in a public garden 

 or park arranged in this fashion would draw more peo- 

 ple in a week and interest them more than the choicest 

 collection of plants would draw in a year. The idea is 

 worth the consideration of some of our philanthropists. 



North Easton, Mass. 



