140 THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



stake considerably longer than the shoot to tie it up as it grows. A 

 fuchsia, for instance, always looks best if trained as one leading 

 shoot, with only one stake in the middle of the pot. Any weak or 

 lengthy side-shoots can be looped to the stake. This rule holds good 

 for most plants if you wish your plant to be pyramidal in shape. The 

 secret of neat effective staking, is to stake your plants properly with 

 as few stakes as you can, not to have your pot full of unsightly 

 states with little foliage to hide them. Supposing you have a plant 

 with a good many shoots or branches, in staking that plant contrive 

 if you can to have the tallest shoot in the centre and the smaller ones 

 outside, and all equally round, so that it may be as well balanced on 

 all sides as you possibly can make it. 



The propagation of flowering plants is a very simple thing. A 

 cutting when properly made aud inserted in the soil only requires you 

 to have a little patience till ifc roots, and to be left alone in the soil 

 till then ; not pulled up now and then to see if it is rooted, as many 

 will do. The same may be said regarding your seeds after they are 



3J0UBLE FLOWEB-P0T TOE STBIKING CUTTINGS. 



sown; let them alone in peace ; they will be showing their little beads 

 above ground by and by ; they do not like being disturbed till then. 

 To enable you to raise your own plants I will say a few words on 

 propagation. It is but reasonable to think you will have a greater 

 pride in a plant that you have raised yourself from a cutting or a 

 seed than one you may purchase ready to your hand. Plants are 

 propagated from cuttings, seeds, and division. Geraniums nnd 

 fuchsias, for instance, are very easily raised from cuttings in this way. 

 Select a strong healthy shoot, cut away the lower leaves, then with a 

 very sharp knife cut it cleanly through, beneath an eye or joint, and 

 insert it with a dibber in the cutting pot, about an inch and a half 

 deep. Calceolarias are easily raised by taking off side-shoots by a 

 joint, cutting off the lower pair of leaves, aud inserting the slips up 



