PROPAGATION. 



583 



1844. The beds should be dug IS inches deep, the soil lig-ht and rich, 

 the top spit broken up fine and raked level. In sowing, let the seed be 

 laid on the top, spread pretty thick, as only a third or fourth will come up. 

 Beat the beds smooth with the back of a spade, water, if dry weather, 

 and sift over the whole about half an inch of light sandy soil. If the 

 sowing takes place in spring, keep the seeds in water for three or four hours 

 before sowing, taking care that the germ of the seed, now developed more 

 or less, is not injured. The more delicate roses should be sown in pans 

 thoroughly drained and filled with equal parts of leaf-mould and yellow loam 

 well mixed together. Water, when sown, as directed above, and cover with 

 half an inch of the same soil mixed with a little sand. In each case a sprink- 

 ling of soot or lime scattered over the bed will be a necessary precaution 

 against insects and worms, for both of which the tender buds of the rose 

 have great charms. About May some of the seeds will germinate, and others 

 ■will come up from time to time till autumn ; and they now require constant 

 care in shading, weeding, and watering when the soil is dry. 



1845. ^y Suckers.— Roses,— some kinds much more than others— push their 

 roots in a lateral direction under ground, and throw up young shoots or 

 suckers from them ; these suckers, separated from the parent root by the cut 

 of a sharp spade, form flowering plants the same season, if separated in the 

 spring and transplanted to suitable soil. When a rose-tree is shy with its 

 suckers, it may be stimulated by heaping earth round the roots. 



1S46. By Cuttings. — Most roses may be propagated by cuttings ; but all are 

 not ahke calculated for being thus propagated, bottom-heat being indispen- 

 sable for the more tender varie- 

 ties. Where it is necessary to 

 propagate a number of plants 

 from one, however, the method 

 is invaluable ; it is especially 

 useful in propagating Chinese 

 and Indian roses, where the 

 young branches are inclined to 

 be woody. Summer and autamn 

 are the best seasons for cuttings. 

 The shoot made in spring is taken 

 with a small portion of last year's 

 wood attached, and cut into 

 lengths of five or six inches, selecting such as have two lateral shoots, with 

 five or six leaves to each. An inch of the old wood should be inserted in the 

 soil, lea^^ng at least two leaves above. From four to six of these cuttings 

 may be placed round the inside of a 60-pot, in soil consisting of equal parts of 

 leaf-mould, turfy loam chopped fine, and silver-sand, w^atering them well with 

 a fine rose-pot, to settle the earth round the roots. When the water is drained 

 oflf, and the leaves dry, remove to a cold frame, or place them under hand- 

 glasses, shade them from the sun, excluding the dew, and sprinkling them 



