98 Hardy Plants for Cottage Gardens 



weather is very cool. When the cuttings have rooted and 

 this takes considerable knowledge and experience to judge 

 the little plants may be reset in separate pots; these are 

 plunged in a box filled with sand, which should be well 

 watered so that the moisture may be absorbed by the earth 

 in the little pots. It is a nice undertaking, requiring skill, 

 watchfulness and good judgment, and the special require- 

 ments of various plants are too numerous to touch upon, so 

 I give nothing but a general description of the method. 

 This is an excellent way to root slips of roses, cut late in the 

 autumn, and kept through the winter in damp sand in the 

 cellar, or buried deep under a foot or more of earth in the 

 garden where they will not freeze. They should be fresh 

 and green when set in early spring. 



Observe another point of importance : there is no one time 

 when plants should be lifted, divided and reset. Some pre- 

 fer to move the first of May; others like to be taken when 

 dead asleep in a dormant condition, just before hard freez- 

 ing weather sets in, or very early in the spring before growth 

 begins. I have tried to indicate this in the appendix, as far 

 as I could learn the choice of plants; but it is a matter for 

 study and experiment. 



There is another delicate question for the gardener to 

 consider, and that is what sort of protection should be given 

 to plants in winter in short, the matter of mulching. I 

 have known delightfully candid people who frankly asked 

 what it was to mulch a plant. I like people who want to 

 know things (provided they do not use that expression of 

 surprise, "I want to know!"), who are willing to confess that 

 we come into this life like a desk with pigeon-holed compart- 

 ments all empty to be filled only as we experience loss, 

 failure and disappointment, unless a fairy presides at birth 

 and bestows that rare gift of being able to take advice. I 



