68 CALIFORNIA GARDEN FLOWERS. 



textures. There is, however, at least one plant that prefers to root when 

 cut at a joint the clematis. 



Planting Cuttings. As with seeds, so with cuttings there must be 

 close contact between the soil particles and the tissues which are to send 

 forth radicles to lay hold upon them. Therefore pressing the soil about 

 the base of the cutting is indispensable, not so much perhaps for the 

 grasping of the rootlets as to exclude too much drying air and to promote 

 movement of moisture between the soil particles toward the tissues which 

 are making growth. The surface soil above, however, should not be com- 

 pacted buit kept mellow to reduce evaporation. But do not make the 

 mistake of planting cuttings too tenderly; pack the earth firmly around 

 the lower end. 



Soil For Cuttings. Clean, sharp, rather coarse, screened sand, such 

 as plasterers use for the first coat, is ideally best for the growth of all 

 cuttings, although hard wood cuttings will start freely in ordinary garden 

 soil, if they are disposed to ''root readily," and that has to be learned from 

 experience, and tests with all kinds of plants are commended to amateurs 

 who are trying to get wise. Cuttings which are not ready-rooters should 

 be tried in sand with due regard to preserving moisture, of which sand is 

 not retentive. Where the garden soil is not mellow there is a sand en- 

 closure with which a fussy amateur declares he has grown everything he 

 has ever tried from cuttings. Make a hole about an inch in diameter and 

 four or five inches deep with a dibber or sharp-pointed stick. Fill this partly 

 with sand, then put the cutting in; fill the space around it with more sand, 

 packing it firmly with another stick and a mallet. Of course, it would not 

 do to pack ordinary soil in this way; besides pouring in water will usually 

 settle the sand sufficiently. 



Soft Wood Cuttings. Soft wood cuttings are also variable in con- 

 dition, from a fresh growing tip to a much harder substance in which, 

 however, woody fiber is either not present or has not hardened. The token 

 of fitness for a soft wood cutting of many plants is that the piece will snap, 

 or part with a clean break, when bent back upon itself, and not crush or 

 splinter or bend without breaking. This is particularly true of semi- 

 herbaceous plants, such as chrysanthemums, heliotropes, geraniums, fuchs- 

 ias, verbenas, coleus, begonias, etc., but is not true of all soft wood cuttings ; 

 for cuttings of roses, carnations, etc., should always be prepared with a 

 sharp knife. Here again we fail to find a fixed rule and have to be guided 

 by experience with the plants individually. Cuttings roughly broken or 

 torn from plants will root satisfactorily under proper conditions, but a 

 clean break or cut favors the growth because there is no crushed tissue; 

 besides, cuttings neatly taken do not disfigure the parent plant with wounds 

 slow and hard to heal. 



Soft wood cuttings, and hard wood cuttings also, if not planted in open 

 ground, are most easily handled in the boxes which have already been 



