SOFT-WOODED OR BEDDING PLANTS. 239 



PROPAGATING SOFT-WOODED PLANTS IN SUMMER. 



The following, which appeared in the American Horti- 

 cultural Annual for 1868, maybe appropriately introduced 

 here : 



Every one who has attempted the propagation of plants 

 by cuttings during the high temperature we have in the 

 months of July and August, is aware of the great difficulty 

 experienced in doing so, no matter what system or process 

 is resorted to. In those months plants of a succulent na- 

 ture, such as Carnations, Geraniums, Petunias, etc., etc., 

 grow rapidly, and the shoots formed are in consequence 

 watery and soft, so that, when detached from the plant and 

 used for propagation at that hot season of the year, when 

 the thermometer will average 75 or 80 in the shade, the 

 chances are that few will root, but will, as gardeners term 

 it, " damp off" in a few days after being put in as cut- 

 tings. In ordinary cases, with those having the means 

 of propagating plants, this difficulty in rooting cuttings 

 during the summer months is not of much importance, as 

 florists usually reserve stock enough to enable them to 

 produce all the cuttings they require at the proper season 

 for propagating, namely September, October, and Novem- 

 ber. But with amateurs, who have but a plant or two of 

 some" favorite variety and who wish safely to increase it, 

 or to the florist wishing to make the most of some valua- 

 ble importation, this (to us) new practice is likely to prove 

 of some benefit. The increasing taste for the new kinds 

 of variegated Pelargoniums induced us to import a num- 

 ber of the tricolor section, of which the now comparatively 

 \vell-known sort Mrs. Pollock is a type. These we found 

 to grow rather slowly, and to increase them to the best 

 advantage became a matter of consideration. Layering 

 in the usual way, by bending them down to the ground, 

 was, of course, in plants of that style of growth, all but 

 impracticable. To have taken off cuttings would have 



