56 FLOWERS AND THE FLOWER GARDEN. 



It is a good plan, in planting the cutting, to make a 

 hole, put in the cutting, fill up the hole with silver sand, 

 water, and press the earth tight. Cuttings may be made 

 in spring, summer, or autumn, but we have found no time 

 so good as June and July, although in favourable seasons 

 they have done well as late as Michaelmas. There is 

 another way of planting cuttings, which we have found 

 very successful. Get a three-inch pot, stop the bottom 

 hole with a cork, Jill it witli water, place it inside a six- 

 inch pot, with the tops of the two even, and fill up tho 

 outside pot with compost. Plant rose cuttings round, 

 close against the pot of water, and keep the whole close 

 covered with a glass, until they strike, which is often in 

 about two months. 



To get cuttings ready early in the year, so that the 

 young trees may be ready to plant out early in summer, 

 strong rose-trees in pots may be forced in December, 

 placing them in a sunny situation to ripen the shoots. 



Propagating by suckers is not often practised, but it is 

 useful in the case of Scotch and Austrian roses. 



Eoses on stocks are produced by budding and grafting, 

 and for this kind of propagation the first step is to pro- 

 cure stocks, which should be planted in November, to be 

 ready for working, i.e. budding or grafting, the following 

 year. The stocks generally used are from the dog-rose, 

 the common wild rose of England, suckers of which can 

 be taken out of hedges, or tall stems of which can be 

 grown, as cuttings, planted deep. They are fittest for 

 standards, as the stems grow more kindly than those of 

 stocks of a more aristocratic descent. Manetti and 

 Celine stocks are the result of seedlings from cultivated 

 roses. The black Boursault is another having similar 

 origin. They are kept for dwarfs. When the stocks 

 are planted in autumn, the roots should be pruned close, 

 and the stems shortened to the height required : for 

 standards three or four feet; for half standards two or 

 three feet ; for dwarf standards one foot a little more or 

 less ; and for rose-bushes to within a few inches of the 

 ground. The stocks should be planted in rows three 

 feet apart, and it will do good to throw some litter round 



