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HORTICULTURE 



December 13, 1913 



BE A WINNER 



The Most Notable and Most Noticed Class in the Spring Exhibi- 

 tions is the 



RAMBLER ROSE DISPLAYS 



The Rambler Roses take the same premier position among Easter 

 plants. They are the regal feature of the summer garden. If you 

 want to 



EXHIBIT AND WIN 



at the International and other Spring Exhibitions, if you want the 

 best Easter Flowering Varieties, if you want a Rose Garden of 

 transcendent beauty, let me supply you now. I have the goods 

 and the majority of the most popular and serviceable varieties were 

 originated by me. Send for illustrated list now. 



M. H. WALSH, 



Woods Hole, 

 Mass. 



plenty of light and care as it is to give 

 the bench plants good culture. A num- 

 ber of growers follow the method of 

 taking off the suckers during October 

 and November, potting them up into 

 2%-inch pots. When well-rooted and 

 established, plant them out on benches 

 in good, live soil, and as they begin to 

 grow, take off the tops for the first 

 batch of cuttings. The plants that are 

 left will then begin to send out from 

 each joint shoots that are the very 

 best of material for cuttings; also at 

 the base of the plants numerous suck- 

 ers will shoot out which also make 

 fine cuttings and root easily. Stock 

 plants of this character will continue 

 to produce cuttings until very late in 

 spring so that by following this meth- 

 od a large number of plants can be 

 worked up from a small amount of 

 stock. The care of the stock plants 

 during the winter is very important. 

 They should be kept in a moderately 

 dry condition at the roots and given 

 plenty of air on every favorable occa- 

 sion, with a low temperature main- 

 tained at all times. Very little propa- 

 gation for commercial stock is started 

 before March, which means that the 

 stock plants must not be treated too 

 liberally with water or subjected to a 

 high temperature, or the wood for cut- 

 tings will stretch out and become 

 spindly. 



Propagation. 

 The next item of our subject Is the 

 taking of the cutting and its propaga- 

 tion. It has been said that a cutting 

 as thin as a darning needle, if given 

 good culture afterwards, is just as 

 good as a stronger one, but I have not 

 found it so. I am a firm believer in 

 starting out with the very best ma- 



terial available and rather than take a 

 cutting too thin would give it more 

 time to gain strength. It seems hard- 

 ly necessary to touch on the question 

 of trimming the cuttings. Suffice it to 

 say that when they are trimmed back 

 a little more strength is given them to 

 root out, also they take up less room 

 in the cutting bed. Provide a sharp, 

 clean sand for the propagating bed and 

 make sure of ample drainage to carry 

 off the water freely without letting the 

 sand through the bottom of the bench. 

 Our plan is to cover the bottom of tne 

 bench with %-inch limestone, which 

 acts as a drainage, and prevents the 

 sand from washing through. The lo- 

 cation of the propagating bed is an 

 important point. A few of the vari- 

 eties need a little higher temperature 

 to root them, but the majority are 

 better ofi' if allowed to root slowly. A 

 sand temperature of 54 degrees with 

 an overhead temperature of 50 degrees 

 throughout the body of the house we 

 have found best suited for them. The 

 best time for starting the propagating 



depends on the variety, its season of 

 blooming and, to some extent, the 

 grade of stock desired; also, if early 

 propagation is carried on, whether the 

 young stock in the rush of spring busi- 

 ness will receive proper care and at- 

 tention. Varieties like Ivory and its 

 sports, Polly Rose, or any of the other 

 dwarf growers which take a long sea- 

 son to make stems, should be propa- 

 gated the latter part of February or 

 early in March. The very early flow- 

 ering varieties. Golden Glow and 

 Smith's Advance, when wanted for 

 August or early September flowering 

 and can be planted early before be- 

 coming hard, should be rooted ready 

 to take from the sand by the middle of 

 March. They can then be potted into 

 2%-inch pots, transferred into 3-inch 

 between April 15 and May 1, and be 

 ready to be planted into the benches 

 about May 20. 



Early and Mid-Season Varieties. 

 The main section of the early vari- 

 eties which mature their flowers early 

 in October, should be ready for potting 



PLANT HOUSES OF A. M. DAVENPORT, WOBURN, MASS. 



