July High Summer 



to remove a little of the border soil immediately around 

 the parent plant, and to replace this with the compost 

 used for layering, which consists of sifted loam with 

 a little leaf soil and sand freely intermixed. If the layers 

 are pegged directly into the border it is generally a 

 difficult matter to take them up without breaking the 

 roots. 



Roses from Cuttings. The simplest method of raising 

 Roses from cuttings is to select portions of shoots that 

 have flowered, cut them into pieces 6 or 8 inches long, 

 and place them in wide-mouthed bottles of water on the 

 greenhouse shelf. In a few weeks roots will issue from 

 the base of each cutting ; when the roots are about f inch 

 long the cuttings are potted separately in small pots of 

 light soil plunged to the rim in a slight hotbed, or in fibre 

 in a glass-covered box or propagating case. In the course 

 of two or three weeks they will be established, and may 

 then be grown with the other greenhouse plants. Soon 

 they will be ready for potting in 5 -inch pots, in which they 

 remain throughout the winter, in readiness for planting 

 out of doors in spring. In making a cutting the base is 

 formed by severing the stem immediately beneath a bud. 



Layering Roses. This method of propagation is not 

 commonly practised, and in view of the ease with which 

 Roses may be raised from cuttings it is perhaps scarcely 

 worth while. The cKief advantage is that one at once 

 gets a grown plant. Layering is practised with vigorous 

 Roses, especially climbing varieties, Penzance Briars and 

 some of the old garden kinds. The shoot or branch to be 

 layered should be of the current year's growth; it is notched, 

 at a point most conveniently brought to the ground, in 

 the same way as in the preparation of a Carnation layer. 

 The knife is inserted 1 inch or so beneath a bud or joint, 

 and when the centre of the stem is reached the cut is 

 continued in an upright direction, until it has passed 

 through the joint. A small stone is often placed in the 

 slit to keep it open. The branch is then made secure in 



2 39 



