176 



General Directions^ 



Pfopagfation — Seeds, Grafting:, Buddingf, and Laycfingf — 

 Hybridization, Potting Plants, Drainage, Soil, 

 Mulching, Watering* 



PROPAGATION. 



All plants may be propagated by one or more of the following 

 methods: Seeds, spores, bulbils, budding, grafting, layering, cuttings of 

 the stems, twigs, leaves and roots, suckers, divisions of the crowns or 

 by stolons or runners. Cuttings are usually made from dormant wood 

 in the cases of shrubs and trees whether they be evergreen or deciduous; 

 and in the case of soft wooded plants the growths most recently made 

 are those selected. Cuttings of leaves sometimes root freely and produce 

 young plants or tubers, as in Begonia rex and Gloxinia. There are many 

 devices in which to root cuttings, such as double bell glasses placed over 

 double pots, one of the pots being supphed with water, the other with 

 sand; handlights, and so forth; but they are of little service and are 

 seldom used. Deciduous shrubs are usually propagated out-of-doors. 

 Hardy perennials, such as Iberis, Dianthus and Onosma are propagated 

 in cold frames. Many of the evergreen shrubs do well in a propagating 

 house from which frost is kept out, while the tender plants, both hard 

 and soft wooded, are rooted in an open bed of a warm house the atmos- 

 pheric temperature of which does not fall lower than 55 degrees during 

 the coldest weather. For plants which need more heat a propagating 

 frame is easily erected in the warmest part of the house; this, with a 

 minimum bottom heat of 75 degrees, serves for Nepenthes and other 

 plants slow to root under ordinary conditions. Propagation by 

 suckers, division, stolons and runners is an easy matter, and each species 

 so treated readily suggests the means to be employed. Many plants 

 difficult to propagate by the usual methods of cuttings of the branches 

 yield readily to cuttings made from the roots. The Moss Rose is a fa- 

 miliar example. Clerodendrons, Fatsias, Paulownia imperialis. Rasp- 

 berry, Blackberry and Xanthoceras all come freely from roots. Among the 

 herbaceous plants the roots of Anemone japonica and Lychnis vesper- 

 tina, when cut up quite small, will give plants from every piece. Ind'oor 

 plants, such as Manettia cordifolia and Cephselis ipecacuanha will give 

 plants more readily by this method than any other. 



Seeds— The soil in which to sow seeds, especially that portion of it 

 which is near the surface, and in which there are weed seeds, should be 

 prepared beforehand so as to avoid the necessity of pulling up the weeds 

 and the consequent danger attending the operation of dislodging the 

 seeds which we wish to germinate, especially during the process of ger- 



