CHAPTER II 



Propagation 



All plants may be propagated by one or more of the following 

 methods: Seeds, spores, bulbels, budding, grafting, layering, cut- 

 tings of the stems, twigs, leaves and roots, suckers, divisions of the 

 crowns or by stolons or runners. 



Cuttings. Cuttings are usually made from dormant wood in 

 the cases of shrubs and trees whether they be evergreen or decidu- 

 ous; and in the case of soft- wooded plants the growths most recently 

 made are those selected. Cuttings of leaves sometimes root freely 

 and produce young plants or tubers, as in. Begonia Rex andGloxinia. 

 There are many devices in which to root cuttings, such as double 

 bell glasses placed over double pots, one of the pots being supplied 

 with water, the other with sand; hand lights, and so forth; but they 

 are of little service and are 

 seldom used. Deciduous shrubs 

 are usually propagated out of 

 doors. Hardy perennials, such 

 as Iberis, Dianthus and Phlox, 

 are propagated in coldframes. 

 Many of the evergreen shrubs 

 do well in a propagating house 

 from which frost is kept out, 

 while the tender plants, both 

 hard- and soft-wooded, are 

 rooted in an open bed of a 

 warm house the atmospheric 

 temperature of which does not 

 fall lower than 55 degrees 

 during the coldest weather. 

 For plants which need more 

 heat a propagating frame is 

 easily erected in the warmest fig. 3 — geranium Cutting 



part of the house; this, with Note that the lower leaves have been re- 

 ^ . , T. i. f moved. The cut at the base is through an 



a mmimum bottom neat 01 eye or node. 



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