PLANTING OF CUTTINGS 47 



and place the frame on it, plunging the pots almost to the 

 rim in ashes or cocoanut fibre. 



In selecting the cuttings choose those that are of 

 moderate strength and that appear to start some distance 

 from the base of the old stem. If they cannot be ob- 

 tained without flower buds, cut them over and place the 

 stock plants in a little heat, when a fresh crop of suckers 

 should soon come up, and these, though later, will often 

 answer the purpose better than earlier ones bearing flower 

 buds. 



The individual grower must decide whether the cuttings 

 shall be rooted singly in small pots (thumbs), or two or 

 three placed round the sides of a 3-inch pot, or planted 

 like Pelargonium cuttings in boxes. Each method will 

 produce good results if the cultivator exercises proper 

 care ; those in boxes may root quickest owing to the greater 

 bulk of soil keeping them in a more equable state of 

 moisture, but this gain will be counteracted by the greater 

 check the rooted cuttings will experience during the 

 potting-off process, those in single pots scarcely feeling 

 the shift at all. 



The pots and crocks should be perfectly clean at the time 

 they are used, and the potting compost may consist of loam, 

 leaf mould, and sand in equal proportions, first passing these 

 materials through a half-inch sieve. It is detrimental to 

 make the soil too firm in either pots or boxes, though in 

 inserting the cuttings care should be taken to firm them 

 in the soil, placing them so that they quite rest on the 

 bottom of the hole that is made to receive them. A 

 thorough watering should be given before placing the 

 pots in the frame, it being undesirable to saturate with 

 moisture the cocoanut fibre, or other plunging material, 



