PROPAGATION OF ROSES iii 



watering, the time of year, the selecting of the buds, 

 and also as to tying and retying them after insertion, 

 apply equally to those dwarf stocks. 



Raising Rose Plants from Cuttings. — Now that excel- 

 lent Rose plants can be obtained ready made, as it 

 were, from the nurseries at such reasonable prices, it 

 seems hardly worth while trying to raise them from 

 cuttings, besides which, budding is a much more 

 certain and quicker method of increasing a stock of 

 Roses. To ensure the greatest measure of success 

 the following directions may be followed with confi- 

 dence, as they are the outcome of the experience of 

 one of the most skilful raisers of own-root Roses that 

 we have ever had. A cucumber or other cold frame 

 should be placed on hard ground and filled with a 

 mixture of loam, sand and leaf-mould in nearly equal 

 proportions to the depth of six inches. This compost 

 should be made very firm and afterwards well watered. 

 In a few days it will be ready to receive the cuttings. 

 The best time to commence operations is towards the 

 end of September. The cuttings should be taken 

 from shoots which have borne the first crop of Roses 

 of the year, as they will then be in the half-ripened 

 condition required. They should not be cut from 

 the plant but stripped off with a slight heel. The 

 cuttings should be about four inches in length and 

 thus prepared. All the leaves should be cut off 

 except the two lower leaflets of the two upper leaves. 

 They must be dibbled in and made very firm at the 

 base or they will not strike. The cuttings should 

 be inserted six inches apart and three inches deep, 



