i68 



GARDENING FOR BEGINNERS 



pot them in a pot measuring six inches in diameter. Use some light 

 gritty compost, and avoid too firm potting. After repotting give 

 each plant a watering in, using a fine-rosed can for the purpose. 

 Stand the plants on a shelf near the glass roof of the greenhouse, 

 and if this is not possible, on the greenhouse bench, maintaining 

 a temperature of between 45 degrees and 50 degrees. In a short 

 time a fresh lot of shoots should be developing on the plants, and 

 cuttings of this kind are those best calculated to give satisfactory 

 results. Where large 4 quantities of cuttings are required, after shaking 

 the old plants out of their flowering pots, reducing the ball of earth, 

 and at the same time cutting back some of the longer and coarser roots, 

 replant them in a bed of soil made up on the greenhouse bench. This 



bed of light gritty soil should 

 be from six inches to eight 

 inches deep and the plants not 

 too firmly bedded out. An 

 even surface should be made, 

 so that when watering the 

 water should be retained and 

 not run off on either side, as 

 is the case unless this simple 

 rule be observed. The same 

 temperature should be given 

 in this case as that advised 

 for plants in pots. Within a 

 period of ten days to a fort- 

 night the cuttings should be 

 developing in large numbers. 

 The soil should be kept just 

 moist, neither too pasty nor 

 too dry. Some may not care 

 to treat their old plants in 

 this way; the trouble is too 

 great. If so, cut out any 

 attenuated shoots of compara- 

 tively recent growth, also 

 weakly ones. Although the early-flowering varieties appear strong, 

 they are often among the first of the old plants to suffer, and when 

 such is the case their only chance is either to repot them or plant 

 them out on the greenhouse bench the two methods of increasing 

 the supply of cuttings. 



The Best Cuttings. The best, and in truth the only good, cut- 

 tings to be obtained are those which push their way through the soil 

 at some distance from the old stem. These are of recent growth, 

 and generally go ahead immediately they become rooted. The other 

 form of cutting is produced close to the old stem, and often develops on 

 the stem itself. Varieties rather shy in producing cuttings often have 

 to be perpetuated by stem-cuttings. This kind should not be too long, a 

 desirable length being between two and a half inches and three inches. 



GOOD TYPE OF CUTTING, SHOWING 

 SHOOT OF FREE GROWTH 



