64 PRESENT-DAY GARDENING 



breeders select the seedlings that look most promising and 

 graft them on a forcing stock, which has the effect of bring- 

 ing out in the succeeding flowers their best qualities. 



Messrs. Seidel, of Dresden, raise a large number of 

 Rhododendrons every year from seeds. The seedlings, when 

 quite young, are planted in the open, to be tested as to their 

 hardiness before they are grown to flowering size. The 

 object of this treatment is to take full advantage of variation 

 in the direction of hardiness, and, as the situation of the 

 nursery where the young plants are tried is exposed and 

 subject to frequent frosts, it is assumed that any seedling 

 which survives this treatment may be considered to be 

 quite hardy. 



LAYERS 



Layering is sometimes resorted to for Rhododendrons 

 which it is desired to grow on their own roots. In the 

 United States the garden Rhododendrons when grafted on 

 R. ponticum do not thrive as well as the same varieties do 

 when they are from layers. Nurserymen in this country 

 who grow for the American markets, knowing this, layer 

 certain kinds to meet the requirements of American cus- 

 tomers. Probably many of the garden Rhododendrons 

 would grow and last longer in this country if, instead of 

 being grafted on R. ponticum, they were raised from layers 

 or cuttings. 



It is not unusual for Rhododendrons that have been 

 grafted to lose their health after a time, as many other 

 grafted plants do, in consequence, no doubt, of some defect 

 in the stock. There does not appear to be any good reason 

 why a garden Rhododendron should not live to as great an 

 age and keep its health as R. ponticum, R. caucasicum, and 

 other species do. When they fail, it is probably because 



