66 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 469. 



In any special instance one ought to know the conditions under 

 which the plants exist, especially as to temperature ; and the sea- 

 son of active growth, for this is generally the best time to start the 

 cuttings or slips, especially of the so-called soft-wooded plants. 

 There are some exceptions' among hard-wooded plants, which 

 seem to need a longer period of preparation or callousing. 

 We can strike cuttings almost any time from the growing 

 shoots of Roses, but slips of ripened wood must be treated as 

 we treat Grapevines and Currant prunings, by putting them in 

 sand in cold frames or cellars to callous over winter. A large 

 number of hardy shrubs can be propagated in this way, and 

 we get larger plants in less time than when we use the soft 

 growth. Whenever soft tips fail to root it will be well to try 

 ripened wood in the way suggested. 



Soft-wooded plants are propagated mostly during winter- 

 time. In many large establishments only poor provision is 

 made for propagating. It is not at all uncommon to see cut- 

 tings standing in pots on ordinary greenhouse benches, under 

 adverse conditions, making a struggle to gain a root-hold. No 

 greenhouse should be without a corner properly fitted for 

 rooting plants. This can easily be done. In the majority of 

 places, the benches are of wood or slate slabs, and if we would 

 enclose a section of a bench by boarding up the under part we 

 could get sufficient warmth even for tropical plants. Slides will 

 be required to regulate the temperature. Our benches being 

 of concrete we could not adopt this arrangement, and in such 

 cases the best plan is to tap the heating system and carry a 

 coil of three-quarter-inch pipes above, so that they rest on 

 the table. These pipes must be boarded over so as to enclose 

 an evenly heated air-space, which in turn evenly heats the bed 

 of propagating sand above it. This is better, of course, than 

 to run the pipes directly through the bed. Above this platform 

 a part of the bench boxed in holds some four inches of sand. 

 The box may be finished neatly or spanned by sheets of glass, 

 movable as occasion requires. By a valve arrangement we are 

 able to regulate the amount of bottom-heat to a nicety. In 

 selecting a corner one should choose the shadiest and, if pos- 

 sible, the coolest place. Practical experience has shown that 

 successful propagation requires that the temperature of the 

 air should be about ten degrees lower than that of the soil or 

 sand in which the roots form. A cool house enables us to make 

 these conditions better than a warm one. A bottom-heat of 

 sixty-five degrees, Fahrenheit, with an overhead temperature of 

 fifty-five degrees, will suit all but a few tropical plants. The ob- 

 ject should always be to develop as many roots as we can with 

 as little excitement as possible of stem and leaf growth. A soft, 

 spindling growth is least desired, but always results when we 

 use a close, stuffy propagating bed. 



Medium sand, neither coarse nor soft, is best. I avoid red 

 sand. For winter and spring work we like our sand as free from 

 clayey or loamy ingredients as possible, though forsummer use 

 a slight percentage is advantageous. It should be packed firmly. 

 In the preparation of cuttings the old practitioners used to 

 hamper their work by much detail. It was not supposed that 

 a cutting could root unless taken off at a joint, and even to-day 

 some growers are possessed by the same delusion. Special care 

 is needed with some kinds of plants. Cuttings must be selected 

 and be at just the proper condition of ripeness, but with the 

 majority of the plants propagated cuttings made of sturdy 

 growing shoots are almost sure to root, no matter where we 

 cut them. All that is necessary is to see that they are 

 properly inserted, and with as little delay as possible. They 

 should be cut clean, shorn of a few of the bottom leaves and 

 made firm in the sand. Abundance of water must at once be 

 given and the bed well shaded, for on no account must the 

 cuttings be allowed to wilt. 



Of soft-wooded plants it will suffice to mention a few which 

 require special preparation or to be in a certain condition of 

 ripeness. Growing side-shoots of Ficus elastica, taken with a 

 heel, root more quickly than the tips. It is possible, also, to 

 root separate eyes of these, but it takes a very strong bottom- 

 heat of eighty degrees to start them into growth even when 

 rooted. Daphne Indica, Cytisus, Azaleas and Acacias root 

 best from half-ripened shoots taken with a heel. To propa- 

 gate these in quantity it is a good plan to prune an old plant 

 closely and take the fresh shoots as they come from the older 

 wood. Euphorbia (Poinsettia) pulcherrima and E. fulgens 

 root best from soft shoots, also taken with a heel. Old plants 

 of these kept in a dormant condition until the opening of 

 spring, and then planted out when settled weather comes, 

 furnish abundance of cuttings all through the summer, and 

 from these we get a lot of various sizes. Dracsenas of the Cor- 

 dyhne section seldom fail to root when the tips are taken as 

 well as by division of the stem and root. 



Wellesley. Mass. T. D. Hatfield. 



Greenhouses for Amateur Gardeners. 



""PHIS is the season of the year when plants commence to 

 -*■ grow more naturally and force more readily in the green- 

 house. It seems to be also the time when one's less provident 

 gardening friends drop in on their annual visit to take measure- 

 ments and talk over building that long-delayed greenhouse, 

 and it is a good time to talk over the matter from the amateur 

 point of view. No two persons garden in the same way and 

 with similar ideas, but no one can garden seriously for any 

 considerable time in this climate without feeling the need of 

 shelter of some kind for his plants, many of which are safe 

 out-of-doors for only half the year. Even those of us who are 

 specially devoted to the cultivation of hardy plants, find that 

 as our collections grow we need shelter for plants whose 

 hardiness is uncertain, or for those which are to be planted out, 

 but have been received out of season. One can possibly 

 garden successfully with cold frames in a hardy-plant garden, 

 but they are anything but pleasant things to care for during the 

 stormy days of winter. Besides, one's garden fever seldom 

 reaches an ebb where flowers are not acceptable, and in the 

 pursuit of these and of comfort we naturally gravitate toward a 

 greenhouse or a desire for one. Unfortunately, it is too often 

 a desire, for, curiously enough, there seems to be a general 

 idea that a greenhouse is a luxury, expensive to build and 

 expensive to maintain. This is one of those popular fallacies 

 which keep afloat mostly because no one takes the trouble to 

 deny them, and perhaps because the horticultural builders 

 have not recognized the fact that there is a very large want of 

 small greenhouses at a moderate price. Such greenhouses 

 are offered abroad for much less than half the prices quoted 

 here, and heaters in great variety at prices which evidently 

 have some relation to the cost of production. It will be a great 

 boon to horticulture when the builders wake up to modern 

 business methods and offer out of stock a choice of a few styles 

 of small greenhouses at a fair price, suitable for modest gar- 

 dens. At present, however, one does not need to debar 

 himself if he is willing to take some trouble. By visiting the 

 owner of some small house one can get some measurements 

 and sketch out his special requirements. The lumber for the 

 double-board walls is of small expense at the nearest lumber- 

 yard. The sash-bars can be ordered of those dealers who 

 make them a specialty, and the ventilating sash can be had of 

 some dealers. Any carpenter can soon frame the struc- 

 ture ready for the glass, and, in fact, the whole thing is not 

 beyond the skill of any one handy with tools. Seventy-five to 

 a hundred dollars' worth of materials will suffice for a house 

 large enough for most small gardens, and another fifty dollars 

 should put in a water circulation, which is the best and most 

 economical method of heating. It is difficult to advise on the 

 form of the greenhouse most likely to prove satisfactory ; it 

 will depend very much on the species of plants grown. Of 

 course, the cheapest form is a span-roof over wooden walls, as 

 it is the easiest and quickest built. The modest structure 

 which answers my requirements is an evolution from this 

 form, and may be suggestive to any one who is likely to grow 

 almost anything except strictly tropical plants, and who wishes 

 also to store plants which must be kept cool and dormant. Origi- 

 nally I had a house about eight feet wide with side benches, 

 with heater at one end and pipes under the benches. Outside 

 of the house to the south was a row of cold frames. It was 

 borne in on me after some experience that covering and 

 uncovering cold frames was not a specially pleasing occupa- 

 tion, and I had rather too much heat in the house. I then 

 raised the sash, sloping it from the ridge to the front of the cold 

 frame, and by digging a walk just outside the former wall 

 of the house, but now under glass, I have access to the beds of 

 the former cold frame, and can work over them at any time in 

 perfect comfort. This annex is ordinarily ten to fifteen degrees 

 cooler than the main house. At the furthest end plants 

 remain nearly dormant, and in other places there is warmth 

 enough to bring plants and bulbs on gradually as may be de- 

 sired. Later I took out the cube of earth under the south 

 bench and removed the lower part of the former south wall, 

 adapting it to a fernery. At present, with a house fifteen feet 

 wide, I have now fifteen feet width of benches and solid beds 

 and two paths. A further improvement would be to carry the 

 north wall up three feet so as to make room for shelves which 

 would hold more pots. But the most satisfactory addition ever 

 made to the house was a coat of emerald-green, which painted 

 it quite effectually out of the landscape. There does not seem 

 to be any special reason why such a utilitarian structure as a 

 greenhouse should be made specially prominent by the 

 whitest of paint. Small greenhouses and commercial places 

 cannot be made very effective show places, but it does seem 



