38 MARKET 'NURSERY WORK 



As a rule it is cut from the current season's growth, wood of 

 an older growth being slower and more diffident in emitting 

 roots. It must be solid growth, not necessarily hard, as that 

 depends entirely upon the character of the plant from which it 

 is cut. It may be a terminal growth 3 or 4 inches long, as is the case 

 with the generality of bedding plants, or it may be a modification 

 of the " slip " and have a heel of older wood at the base. 

 Speaking generally, for we dare not dogmatise where there is 

 no fixed rule, the cuttings of soft-wood plants are cut imme- 

 diately below a joint (see Fig. 5), and hard-wooded subjects, 

 which are of slower growth, are cut with a heel. (See Fig. 6.) 

 A cutting should always be taken from a healthy growth, 

 and contain within itself a store of food upon which it can 

 exist for several days. The fact of its being severed from the 

 parent plant and otherwise mutilated, should not do more than 

 check and modify the flow of sap within certain limitations 

 that is, if it is properly done while the special treatment given 

 should be designed to " wet nurse " it until the natural action 

 of the sap shall have created for itself the means of support 

 by the emission of roots. This special treatment may be summed 

 up in three words moisture, warmth, shade. 



WHEN TO MAKE CUTTINGS 



At this stage of our work we purposely limit our remarks 

 to that class of plants which, without detriment to their full 

 appreciation, we may term as " ordinary," on the ground that 

 they are everybody's plants and are always in demand. This 

 constitutes them at once as the nurseryman's plants, because 

 it is obviously his business to grow what he is quite certain to 

 sell. Those we are about to enumerate are all proved sellers, 

 ignored only by those who specialise in other directions, but 

 with whom we are not here concerned. Most of the species 

 may be and are raised from seeds, but the select varieties can 

 only be perpetuated by means of cuttings. 



Arabis, Double and Variegated 



Bouvardias 



Begonias, fibrous rooted . . 



Calceolarias, shrubby 



Carnations, perpetual flowering 



in June. 

 April. 



,, September and October. 

 February. 



