26 COMMERCIAL ROSE CULTURE 



propagating house is one about the same as the plants were 

 growing in. The bottom heat may be five degrees warmer. 



Do not take cuttings from any but healthy, vigorous plants. 

 Early in the morning, or on a cloudy day, when the wood is 

 fresh and comparatively cool, is the best time to take off wood 

 for cuttings. Blind wood, or wood without a flower bud, is 

 generally used for this purpose. It should be plump and clean, 

 not so soft that the point can be pinched out with the thumb, 

 and not so old as to be very hard and dry. Wood of about the 

 same texture as that next to the flower when it is cut, is in the 

 right stage of development. If you can afford to throw away 

 some flowers, or if you can use them short stemmed, you can 

 utilize your wood for propagating. This, however, is a slow 

 process and only done on a small scale, often with hew or 

 scarce varieties. This wood does not root readily if too hard, 

 or if the stem is large and pithy. 



I believe in cuttings with two or more eyes (see Fig. 1). 

 They may be rooted with only one eye (see Fig. 2), if the 

 object is quantity rather than quality, but cuttings with two or 

 more eyes will make much larger plants in a short time than 

 those with only one. 



Cut off as much wood as you can handle in a few hours' time, 

 sprinkle with water to keep it fresh, and then proceed, with a 

 sharp knife, to trim the cuttings as shown in Fig. 3. As soon 

 as they are ready, use a narrow board or a lath, for a straight 

 edge, and draw an old table knife or a putty knife alongside it, 

 making a cut in the sand about half an inch deep, insert the 

 cuttings just deep enough so that they will not fall over and 

 place them as close together as possible without crowding them ; 

 then, by moving the lath to the other side of the row, and 

 pounding gently on it a little, the sand will be tamped down 

 enough to make the cuttings solid, and the knife drawn along- 

 side again to mark the place for the next row. 



