38 



THE SCHOOL GARDEN BOOK 



Young Geranium Grown from a Cutting. 



Some of the hardy perennial 

 flowering plants seem to make and 

 root their own cuttings. In the 

 case of many tall-growing peren- 

 nials, such as the heleniums and 

 boltonias, the old stalks and roots 

 die after they bloom in the au- 

 tumn, but a ring of underground 

 side shoots from the parent stem 

 start roots of their own, and in 

 the spring make independent 

 plants grouped in a clump. In 

 consequence, these are among the 

 easiest of all plants to propagate. 



Some weeds have the same habit, unfortunately. Worst of 



all is witch-grass, whose underground stems root at every 



joint and may send up a shoot from any joint. Cutting up 



such a pest merely multiplies it by cuttings. It should be 



carefully picked or raked from 



the soil and destroyed. 

 Another method of propagating 



through cuttings is found in those 



plants which are multiplied by 



means of sections of roots, as in 



the case of common horse-radish : 



these are called root cuttings. 



One can get through any florist 



or seedsman bunches of horse- 

 radish roots, which may be cut 



into sections three or four inches 



long and be carefully planted '^'°""^ "^"howm pm ' '° " ^^^^ 



