THE NURSERY-BOOK. 



Fig. 52. Soft cuttings. 



They are inserted in sharp sand to a sufficient depth to hold 

 them in place, and the atmosphere and soil must be kept moist 



to prevent wilting or 

 ' ' flagging " The cut- 

 tings should also be 

 shaded for the first 

 week or two. A propa- 

 gating-frame is often 

 employed. Soft cut- 

 tings are commonly 

 cut below a bud or cut 

 to a heel, but this is 

 unnecessary in easily 

 rooted plants like geranium, coleus, heliotrope, etc. Fig. 52 

 shows an oleander cutting at a, a carnation at b, and a geranium 

 at c. A coleus cutting is illustrated in Fig. 53. Sometimes the 

 growth is so short or the stock so scarce that the cutting cannot 

 be made long enough to hold itself in the soil. In such case a 

 toothpick or splinter is tied to the cutting to hold it erect, as in 

 the cactus cutting, Fig. 54, or the geranium cutting, Fig. 55. In 

 the window garden, soft cuttings may be started in a deep plate 

 which is filled half or two-thirds full of sand and is then filled to 

 the brim with water, and not shaded ; this method, practiced on 

 a larger scale, is sometimes useful during the hot summer 

 months. If bottom heat is desired, the plate may be set upon 



the back part of the kitchen 

 stove. Oleanders usually root 

 best when mature shoots are 

 placed in bottles of water. 



Cuttings from the nearly ma- 

 ture green wood are employed 

 for hard-wooded trees and 

 shrubs, as diervillas (weigela), 

 roses, hydrangeas, lilacs, etc. 

 They are cut in essentially the 

 same manner as the hard-wood cuttings described on page 55. 

 They are often taken in summer when the buds have developed 



53' Coleus cutting. 



