CHAPTER V 



THE PROPAGATION OF PLANTS 



Most window plants are propagated from cuttings, 

 or "slips." A cutting is a piece of branch. If the 

 lower end is inserted in soil, the branch, if in proper 

 condition, will form roots, and in this way you obtain a 

 new plant. By proper condition is meant the condition 

 of the wood at the time the cutting is taken. It should 

 not be of too recent a growth, neither should it be 

 of too old a growth. The cutting, if too "green," is 

 likely to decay before roots can be formed ; if too old, 

 roots often refuse to start. A "happy medium" 

 between the two stages of plant growth should be 

 sought for in selecting cuttings. Let the branch be 

 firm, but not tough. If, when you bend it between 

 your fingers, it seems inclined to break, and yet does 

 not, it is in about the fit condition to "strike." This 

 is not laid down as a rule to go by, but it indicates as 

 accurately as any test that can be given the amateur, 

 the proper condition of the wood of most plants from 

 which it is desired to take cuttings. Study and obser- 

 vation of the characteristics of plants will enable a 

 person to tell at a glance which cutting to take and 

 which to reject, but it is a difficult, if not an impossible, 

 matter to make this clear in words. 



I always start cuttings in clear sand. Take a 

 shallow dish — a soup plate is as good as anjrthing' — 

 and fill it with the cleanest sand you can find. Let it 

 be somewhat sharp and gritty, rather than fine, for if 

 too fine it will become like mud when wet. Insert your 

 cuttings in it, letting the ends of them reach down 

 through it and come in contact with the plate. Water, 



