44 GARDENING FOR PLEASURE. 



likely be so healthy or vigorous as one made when the 

 shoot is in the proper state. 



In propagating woody plants, such as Boses, Azaleas, 

 or Camellias, this test of breaking or snapping of the 

 cutting does not in these indicate the proper condition, 

 although they also will root if taken in the soft state, 

 yet we find it is not quite so well to do so as to wait until 

 the cuttings of these woody plants gets harder ; what 

 this proper hardness is, it is not very easy always to de- 

 termine. In roses the best condition for taking the 

 cutting is reached when the young shoot, (of which the 

 cutting is made), develops the flower bud to about the 

 size of a large pea. Although the shoot on which the 

 flower bud shows, will make a proper enough cutting, 

 yet if it is not desired to waste the flower, cuttings had 

 better be made of the (( blind" shoots, i. e., such young 

 shoots as do not flower. In making the cuttings of 

 roses, or in fact of almost all plants, (with a few excep- 

 tions hardly worth noting), there is no need to cut at a 

 joint, although nine gardeners out of ten still do so, par- 

 ticularly those who have learned the business in Europe, 

 where, in this as in many other things in horticulture, 

 they still follow the dictum of some savant of a century 

 ago, never questioning why. But our business necessities 

 here, have caused us to ride rough -shod over many of 

 their set rules, and in none more ruthlessly than in this 

 matter of propagating. But as this book is written 

 mainly for amateurs in gardening, I will proceed to give 

 a simple method by which any one can propagate plants 

 from cuttings or slips, even when no greenhouse or hot- 

 bed is at hand. It is called 



THE "MUD" OR "SAUCER SYSTEM" OF PROPAGATING. 



Take any common saucer or plate, into which put 

 sand to the depth of an inch or so, then prepare the cut- 

 tings in the usual manner, and insert them in the sand 



