r^Q5 



GARDENING. 



147 



SCALE OF rXET '^ 



S I D E W A L K- 



3 »- ..". ... J^ 



PLAN FOR A PIPTY-FOOT LOT. 



enough for it next month. Althoughcut- back shelf or under the shade of other 



tings before they are rooted must be plants. But they need not be in a south 



shaded, thev should be on a bench or facing sunny aspect, 



shelf near the glass, and never away on a As a rule young plants are more stocky 



and thrifty than old ones and freer from 

 insects, especially in the case of bedding 

 plants. February and March are excel- 

 lent months for striking cuttings. A cut- 

 ting is a tip piece of young wood (old 

 wood too in some cases), of two or three 

 joints in length. As a rule most anything 

 will root in a night temperature^of 60° to 

 05°. This is considered pretty warm for 

 feverfew, gaura, phloxes, and hardy stock 

 generally, right for all common green 

 house stock, and a little cool for altcrnan- 

 theras, but our experience has been that 

 most everything strikes well in it, and if wc 

 take proper care of the plants after the}' 

 are rooted there is no enervation even in 

 hardy plants. 



In the case of geraniums, fuchsias, 

 heliotrope, salvia, stevia, dahlia, mar- 

 guerites, double petunias, and some 

 others the cutting should be cut oft" clean 

 just under a joint, and the two lower 

 leaves removed. Coleus, iresine and 

 altcrnanthera should be cut just above a 

 joint and inserted without removing any 

 of the leaves, but if the leavesare large or 

 long they had better be cropped shorter 

 so that they will take up less room in the 

 cutting bed. Carnation cuttings 'arc 

 young shoots or stem sprouts, three or 

 four joints long and plucked out of their 

 sockets; they need no cutting or dressing 

 with a knife whatever unless it be to 

 shorten the leaves a little and even this 

 isn't necessary. If the j-oung shoots of 

 lemon verbena when they are about two 

 inches long are cut off with a little of the 

 heel where they are attached to the old 

 wood retained most everyone will strike, 

 but tips cut under a joint without the 

 heel are more tedious. .Abutilon, plum- 

 bago and hibiscus cuttings treated in the 

 same way strike quicker and with greater 

 certaint}' than when the cuttings arc- 

 made in the ordinary way. Although 

 bouvardias are generally grown as win- 

 ter blooming greenhouse plants they will 

 also Dloom beautifully out of doors in 

 late summer. After the plants have had 

 a good rest shake them out of their pots, 

 and cut up their stout roots into pieces one 

 to two inches long and lay these in a pot 

 or shallow box, in light soil and covered 

 over half a inch deep, then put a little 

 swamp moss on top to keep it equally 

 moist. In due timethe roots will throwup 

 little plants which should be lifted out and 

 potted off singl}'. You can get up a good 

 stock of Anemone Japonica in the same 

 way. In the case of double white fever- 

 few, ageratum and lobelia we tear the 

 plants apart into as many pieces as pos- 

 sible, strip off the rougher leaves, and 

 insert the pieces as cuttmgs without any 

 touch of the knife. If stock is short 

 though instead of tearing the crown 

 apart we cut over the shoots and use 

 them and let the croAii remain to bear 

 another crop of sprouts. Amateurs gen- 

 erally divide their old dahlia stools into 

 two, three, or more pieces and plant 

 these, for it is generally conceded that old 

 undivided roots don't display the same 

 vitaHty that younger plant's do. Our 

 florists who make a specialty of dahlias 

 go still further and claim that they get 

 cleaner and healthier plants from' new 

 plants made every jcar fromj'oung wood 

 cuttings. Old plants taken into thcgreen- 

 house now soon throw up sprouts and 

 cuttings made of these root readily. If 

 you have any fine hardy phloxes or pent- 

 stemons you wish to increase j-our stock 

 of, lift the roots, plant them in a box, and 

 bring them into the greenhouse, they will 

 soon start to grow, and the young 

 shoots can be taken for cuttings, they 

 strike easily. 



Cuttings may be struck (rooted) in 



