68 GARDENING FOR PLEASURE. 



two to three inches in diameter, and treated carefully by 

 shading and watering for two or three days. The shad- 

 ing is best done by covering the cuttings, after they are 

 potted off, with paper kept damp by sprinkling, say from 

 9 A.M. to 3 P.M. if the sun is shining on them. To such 

 as desire more extended information on the subject of 

 propagating plants by cuttings, I would refer to my work, 

 "Practical Floriculture." 



CHAPTER XIII. 

 PROPAGATING BY LAYERING. 



ALTHOUGH florists now rarely resort to propagation by 

 layering, yet now and then it may be desirable for ama- 

 teurs to increase the 

 number of some favorite 

 plant during the sum- 

 mer season, where no 

 other method of propa- 

 gation can be used. The 

 only difference between 

 a layer and a cutting is, 

 that the cutting is en- 

 tirely detached from the 

 parent plant, while the 

 layer remains partly con- 

 nected with it. Al- 

 though layering may be Fis ' 26 -~ ^OPAGATING BY 

 done with the ripened wood of vines or shrubs of the 

 growth of the previous season, yet it is preferable to use 

 the shoot of the present year in its half-green state. For 

 example, a rose or flowering shrub is pruned in the usual 

 way in spring ; by midsummer it will have made strong 

 shoots one, two, or three feet in length from or near the 



