March 10, 1870. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



180 



was as obvious to ns as if we bad looked at the potting. The 

 balls from the email pots bad been transferred to larger 

 unwashed pots. If the pots bad been clean, dry, and well 

 drained the balls would have turned out as clean as so many 

 Dutch cheeses. No plants have the same chance to thrive in 

 pots with small pieces of the old earth adhering to the inside. 

 These soon prevent the water passing regularly and freely, 

 and thus injure the drainage. Besides the slovenliness of the 

 act, it is giving no plant justice to put it into a dirty pot. Well 

 cleaned, an old pot is just as good as a new one — in one respect 

 better, as it may be used at once. New pots at all fresh from 

 the kiln should be steeped in clean water and dried before 

 using. Pots should never be used after washing until they are 

 dry. For washing, we think plenty of clean water is the beBt, 

 with a fair portion of arm and hand power. In all cold 

 weather we use water as warm as to be comfortable for the 

 bands. 



Prooeeded with inserting cuttings and giving them a little 

 bottom heat. For dispatch, in every way we find nothing 

 better than shallow wooden boxes. These may easily be neatly 

 made, but ours are rough enough — mostly old wood, which was 

 merely sawn. Our only care about them, if previously used, 

 is to have them clean ; and old and new have a good coat of 

 freBh limewash inside and outside, which keeps all fungi away. 

 Boxes 2 inches deep do well enough for cuttings, pricking-eft" 

 Lobelias, &c. 



Dahlias. — We removed a lot of roots to the floor of a vinery 

 beneath a stage, to start them so as to obtain cuttings, or divide 

 the roots so as to leave a shoot or stem to each. For good 

 sorts which it is desirable to increase, it is best to place the old 

 tubers in a sweet hotbed and tolerably near the light, so that 

 the shoots that come Ehall be stout, firm, and short-jointed. 

 As good cuttings may be made when there i3 the point and 

 two joiiits behind it, though we have often cut them at the first 

 joint below the point or axis of growth. It is common to 

 remove the two leaves at the joint, after cutting clean across 

 below them. When a nice moist heat can be given, the cuttings 

 will strike all the sooner if the leaves are left. When thus left 

 they generally have a bud at the baBe of each, which seldom 

 startB into growth if the cutting strikes and grows quickly. 

 The saving of these buds ensures you fruitful tubers in the 

 following year — that is, tubers with eyes on them. When these 

 lower leaves are removed, the cutting should be so made as not 

 to take away the incipient buds at their base or axil, for if 

 removed, though the cutting grows and the plant blooms well, 

 and a mass of tuber is formed, it will very likely happen that 

 that tuber will have no eye or bud in the following year, and 

 therefore, as respects growth, will be no better than a Potato 

 without a bud. When started early innumerable cuttings may 

 be obtained from one tuber. It generally happens, however, 

 that when a new kind is thus largely propagated the last-taken 

 cuttings, though they grow well enough, will not bloom very 

 well or very truly the first season. When we used to grow 

 Dahlias rather largely we found that late cuttings did better 

 afterwards when slipped into a good piece of an old tuber as a 

 graft, instead of being struck on their own bottoms. 



One of the simplest modes, therefore, for obtaining good 

 strong plants of the older sorts that will bloom freely as well as 

 grow freely, is to divide the old tuber, bo as to retain a piece of 

 the tuber to each shoot, pot the pieces separately, and harden 

 them off before planting. Some years ago we detailed one of 

 the simplest modes we had met with, where no glass could be 

 given to the Dahlias. As soon as the tubers began to break a 

 little in a warmish shed they were cut to pieces, so that each 

 piece, if possible, should have an eye. A hard piece of ground 

 was then chosen, a couple of inches deep of rough leaf mould 

 and rough loam was laid down, the divided pieces of tubers 

 were laid down on it, 3 or 4 inches apart, and covered with 

 similar material. If the weather proved very cold a little litter 

 was placed over the bed. If by the end of April and the begin- 

 ning of May a few shoots came through they were covered over, 

 and by the 20th of May or so there was a bed of strong stubby 

 plants, ready to be lifted with good balls of rich material and 

 planted at once where they were intended to bloom. 



rBOPAGATINO HOUSE. 



Referring our readers a? to those great beauties Poinsettias, 

 Euphorbias, Clerodendrone, &c. to the directions given by 

 Mr. Eeane in the last and previous numbers, &s propagating by 

 cuttings is now a matter of importance to many of our readers 

 who wish to make the most of their little honses, we shall just 

 notice a very simple mode of doing so ae practised by a nur- 

 seryman gardener. We mention the case aB a happy combi- 



nation of roughness, simplicity, economy, and success. We 

 are not oertain of the size of the house, but we shall not be 

 far out if we say it is 15 feet by 10, heated by a small very 

 oommon flue above ground, which runs along the front, one end, 

 and part of the other end. Ttiere is a stage at the back, and 

 a small platform about 2 feet wide in front, about 2 feet or so 

 above the flue. The platform is thus formed : a few rough 

 poBts are put in the floor, a rail on the top, and from that rail 

 to a ledge in front crosB-pieces of wood or iron extend to sup- 

 port a bottom of slates, pieces of plate iron, tin, zino, tiles, or 

 anything which is the handiest to be had. A little slip of 

 wood is tacked to the rail, so as to make a ledge above this 

 flooring of, say, a couple of inches. This depth of 2 inches from 

 back to front was filled with sand, and formed the propagating 

 bed. When we looked in upon this rough platform, formed 

 of damaged house slates, and old tin kettles and pans beaten 

 flat, it was filled with cuttings, at 2 inches apart, of Fuchsias, 

 Salvias, Verbenas, Calceolarias, Cytisus, Coronillas, &c, strik- 

 ing beautifully, and as soon as they had made their nice tuft 

 of roots, they were lifted carefully, transferred to small pots 

 of sandy soil, and either set on the same platform for a few 

 days, or set on the shelves of the stage. To look at the affair, 

 the cuttings seemed pretty well left to themselves, except a 

 thin shading of whiting on the roof. It will be observed 

 that the platform was from 24 to 30 inches above the flue, no 

 glasses or boxes on it, all quite open beneath, no chamber for 

 bottom heat, no arrangement whatever for securing a moist 

 heat, and nothing as respects a moist atmosphere, except an 

 earth floor for the house, and a watering or syringing of the 

 cuttings as they seemed to need it. We can hardly see how 

 greater success could be obtained by simpler means. 



We wished at the time that some cf our correspondents who 

 are so anxious to have a propagating place in their little green- 

 houses had seen that bed ; but then in honesty we should have 

 been forced to tell them that the combination of simplicity aud 

 success was chiefly owing to making the little house subserve 

 one objeot — that is, striking cuttings, and encouraging them 

 when first struck. The heat was as dry from the flue as it 

 could well be, but the cuttings were kept moist by having the 

 sand moist, and the young plants the same ; but the heat given 

 to ensure the quick rooting of cuttings would be too much for 

 common greenhouse plants, and giving air to suit these would 

 have injured the cuttings and caused them to flag. 



As several timas stated, however, the principle could be acted 

 on, bo as to have two or three distinct temperatures in the 

 same small house. Suppose in a Email house with a flue you 

 had a similar platform over it, from 18 to 24 inches wide, just 

 shut in that flue with Borne wooden shutters in front, and the 

 plants on the platform would be warmer than those on the 

 etage. Slides in the shutters would let out more heat for the 

 atmosphere of the house if desired. Have a few little boxes 

 with glass tops to go over the platform, and in them you may 

 have a higher temperature by 10°, 20°, or more, than the general 

 atmosphere of the house. If these boxes are too troublesome, 

 fix a 5-inch ledge instead of a 2-inch ledge to your supporting 

 rail, a similar ledge at the front wall, and take sheets of stout 

 glass, say from 21 to 27 oz., cut the requisite length, and lay 

 them across, edge to edge, as far as you enclose. If they lay 

 quite flat, they would only require to be lifted and reversed 

 once or twice in the twenty-four hours to prevent drip. A man 

 who prides himself on doing such things can lift such squares 

 easily without any risk of breaking. Rough or fluted glass would 

 render all shading unnecessary. The thicker the glass the 

 better, if not placed in a frame of wood. A dry cloth laid over 

 the glass at night would keep the inside warmer, and prevent 

 the condensation of moisture on the under side of the glass. 



Of course there will be objections to these modifications of 

 the above little propagating house, such as when the flue is 

 shut in in a chamber there may not be heat enough for the 

 rest of the house in a cold night ; and again, to have the heat 

 for propagating you would be obliged to heat the flue when the 

 rest of the little house would be better without it. No doubt, 

 in the first case, you must open the elides ; in the second case 

 give more air to the house in general, whilst the propagating 

 part is kept close. Where these objections are felt to be strong, 

 and the greenhouse is near the dwelling-house, we can offer 

 nothing better than having a box with a moveable glass top, 

 a double bottom — table-drawer fashion, the space between 

 waterproof, and the upper bottom zinc or plate iron. If the 

 box is small, a kettleful of hot water will keep the necessary 

 heat from sixteen to twenty-four hours. We have so fre- 

 quently recommended this Eimple mode, that we must refrain 



