82 GREENHOUSE MANAGEMENT. 



While it will always be best to buy wrought iron pipe, 

 if one has four-inch cast iron pipe on hand, a violet 

 house will be a better place for it than one requiring a 

 high temperature, 



PROPAGATION. 



Violets are generally propagated from cuttings of 

 the young shoots, although the old plants are some- 

 times divided. Care should be taken to select the cut- 

 tings from healthy plants, and if only those from strong, 

 vigorous plants, that have given large numbers of large, 

 perfect flowers, are used, the tendency will be to develop 

 an improved strain of the variety. On the other hand, 

 if they are chosen at random, from plants that have 

 been grown at a high temperature during an entire win- 

 ter, it will not be strange if weak plants, that will 

 quickly succumb to disease, are obtained. 



Cuttings may be made either in September or 

 October, or in the spring. If made in the spring from 

 plants that have been forced, they will have a weaker 

 constitution than if taken from strong and vigorous 

 plants. If made in September, the runners are cut off 

 four or five inches long, and set in a bed of light, sandy 

 soil. By carefully watering and shading them for a few 

 days, they will soon take root. These plants, if covered 

 with a cold frame and mulched with leaves, will be in 

 excellent condition for planting out in the spring. In 

 case old plants have been wintered in a cold frame, good 

 cuttings can be obtained in the spring from them, but, 

 lacking these, the plants in the greenhouse can be used 

 as stock plants. The cuttings may be made the last of 

 March or the first of April and placed in a cutting bed ; 

 after rooting, they should be boxed or potted off in sandy 

 soil, or, if the ground is moist, or so situated that it can 

 be watered, they may be planted out without previous 

 treatment. As a check at the time they are trans- 



