64 THE STORY OF MY ROCK GARDEN 



growers. Even in my early days I found it extremely 

 simple to take away the offsets from many of the 

 encrusted Saxifrages, and Sempervivums, and pot them 

 up in light, gritty soil, where, if kept moist and away 

 from the hot sun, they would, in a short time, root. 

 With the Sedums too, in most cases, one only has to 

 break up a tuft into individual pieces, and dibble each 

 into the soil, and keep them moist, and in a week or 

 so they will be making roots on their own account. 



In the case of most of the mossy Saxifrages it will 

 be found that a large number of adventitious roots 

 are thrown out along the stem owing, I believe to 

 the moisture entangled between the growths that form 

 the patch, and these pieces only need planting deeply 

 (so that about one inch of the green tip is visible above 

 the soil) and they readily grow, provided they are not 

 allowed to get dry for a fortnight or three weeks. 



September I find a suitable month for this. When 

 taking Sempervivum offsets from their parent clump 

 it is advisable to secure as much as possible of the strong 

 cord which attaches the baby to the parent and when 

 laying the small rosette upon suitable soil, to so place 

 a piece of stone upon this cord as to prevent the rosette 

 from being shifted. This greatly facilitates new roots 

 being sent out at the junction of the cord with the base 

 of the rosette. Similarly, in the case of Stonecrops - 

 with many of them such as spathulifolium, all that is 



