136 PRACTICAL FLORICULTURE. 



inches of stem, making a cutting ; that is what is called 

 a single eye cutting. They are simply made by mak- 

 ing one rather slanting cut between the joints, or about 

 half an inch above the eye. About one-third of the leaf 

 is cut off, mainly for the purpose of allowing more cut- 

 tings to be put in the cutting bench. If by any acci- 

 dent the leaf is taken off, the Rose cutting in this condi- 

 tion will never root to make a good plant ; or if, from any 

 cause, the leaves drop off while the cuttings are in pro- 

 cess of rooting, not one in ten will ever make a satisfac- 

 tory plant. Besides the method of using cuttings made 

 from one eye or bud, the " blind wood,' 1 so called (that 

 is, the shoots that do not produce flower buds), is also 

 used, and generally makes the safest and best kind of cut- 

 tings, as these blind shoots are hard and slender, and 

 root rather quicker than cuttings made from single eyes. 

 These shoots are usually too short-jointed to be made into 

 single eye cuttings, and have often two or more eyes to 

 the cutting ; but the foliage should be shortened off about 

 one-third, as in the single eye cuttings. A good length 

 for a Rose cutting is three inches, though in some short- 

 jointed kinds no more than one inch in length of cutting 

 can be obtained. 



There is no difficulty in propagating Roses from cut- 

 tings of young wood, if it is grown under glass, any time 

 from September to May (provided the plants are entirely 

 vigorous and healthy; if affected with red spider, mildew 

 or other disease, failure to root cuttings satisfactorily will 

 be certain); during the months of June, July and August, 

 it is a process requiring great care and attention. We, 

 however, grow hundreds of thousands in this way by the 

 following method : About the middle of May we plant 

 out our "stock plants," so called, though they are young 

 plants from three-inch pots (that have been rooted in the 

 January previous) on the greenhouse benches, in three 

 or four inches of rather poor soil, containing not a par- 



