THE HARDENING OFF OF PLANTS. 



217 



of propagation must not be much relied upon. It is 

 also found that Roses raised from suckers are apt to 

 run to suckers more freely than is consistent with 

 symmetrical growth or floriferous habits, the suckers 

 being also apt to produce " gourmands," that is, 

 abnormally strong and spongy shoots, which not 

 seldom starve off the better or freer-flowering portions 

 of the Rose. No Roses, unless it be some varieties 

 of the Scotch, approach the Dog-rose or briar in the 

 X^rodigahty and persistency of their suckers. 



PROPAGATION BY BOOT-DIVISION. 



This is only practicable in the case of compara- 

 tively few Roses, such as Chinese, Scotch, Austrian 

 Briars, and a few others. These spread out into 

 bushes rather than retain the character of individual 

 plants, and each branch division of the bush has 

 its own independent roots, similar to a herbaceous 

 Phlox, Pa^onia, or other herbaceous plant. Such 

 Roses when lifted may be divided into as many 

 plants as there are rooted stems. Examining a very 

 old plant of Coupe d'Hebe, as this is being written, 

 it has as many as half a dozen independently rooted 

 divisions, and, of course, could be readily divided 

 into so many plants. But this mode of propagation 

 is but little used, and mostly confined to the China 

 or Fairy Roses, the old red and pink Monthly 

 Eoses, and Hosa spinosissima, or Scotch. 



The early autumn is the best time to propagate 

 hardy Roses, and about April the more tender ones, 

 by root-division. Fairy Roses in pots may be divided 

 at any time, the plants being quickly re-established 

 in a close pit or frame. 



Occasionally a good many other dwarf Roses will 

 manifest this property of root-spreading, and any 

 such may be divided as opportunities of removal or 

 transplantation occur. However, as root-division is 

 the last mode of Rose-propagation mentioned here, 

 so it is also the least useful, and it has been but little 

 practised since the budding, grafting, and free root- 

 ing of Roses from cuttings have been so generally 

 and successfully adopted. 



THE HAEDEOTNG OFF OF 

 PLANTS. 



IN the earlier part of the summer this goes on in 

 a wholesale way. Not a few gardeners who have 

 only one or two glass-houses, partially or wholly 

 empty them during the summer months. The 

 plants with which they have been crowded during 

 the winter or early spring months, are now placed 

 out of doors, either to add to the beauty of flower- 

 ■beds or borders, to make or finish their summer 



growth in the open air, or for the express purpose of 

 being hardened. As all sudden changes are dan- 

 gerous, and the transition from under glass to the 

 open air must needs be a change more or less 

 sudden, however mild and warm the weather may 

 be, a few words of warning and of guidance in this 

 matter may prove alike seasonable and useful. 



Every transference of plants from under glass into 

 the open air is really 'a hardening process, and needs 

 some judgment and care. The simplest and safest 

 mode of leading all plants from one to the other with- 

 out their receiving any cheek by it, is to begin by 

 making the inside as like the open air as may be, 

 some days or weeks before the transference is made. 

 We cannot make nor greatly modify the weather out 

 of doors, but we can under glass; and if the green- 

 house sashes and doors are opened night and day, 

 or the glass-frame is drawn off, for a week before 

 plants are moved wholly into the open, they will 

 hardly feel the change, to use the common phrase 

 used by gardeners. This tentative method of 

 bringing the outside weather to bear upon the 

 plants while under glass, enables them to be moved 

 from the one condition to the other without check 

 or hindrance of any kind. To insure this, however, 

 another common mistake must be avoided, and that 

 is the placing of the plants in a too exposed posi- 

 tion. Plants under glass have more or less of 

 shelter and shade; yet not a few, in placing them out 

 to harden, set them in the full blaze of the sun, and in 

 the teeth of the wind ; consequently, their leaves and 

 stems are either baked by the sun or torn and riven 

 by the wind. Even should they escape such serious 

 injury, they are frequently so violently and severely 

 hardened off, that it is weeks before they again start 

 into growth, if, indeed, they grow any more for the 

 season. The hardening process must be gradual, if 

 it is to be either safe or beneficial. Begun in-doors, 

 carried on a step at a time in the open, it ends by 

 fitting and strengthening the plants for their summer 

 work, or next year's flowering. A sheltered place, 

 shaded from the sun for two hours on either side of 

 noon, is the best possible situation for plants 

 that have just been removed from under glass 

 into the open air. After a fortnight or so the 

 plants will be so hardened as to be able to stand 

 almost anywhere. The time, place, and treatment, 

 however, should be varied with different plants. 

 Some are so drawn up — that is, so weakened and at- 

 tenuated — under glass, that they need a month's or 

 more gradual hardening before they can stand the 

 noonday sim's broad glare with impunity. Others 

 are of such a character — as Camellias, for example — 

 that the shady side of a wall or fence suits them 

 best throughout the season. Others, again, such as 

 Azaleas, can hardly have too much direct svmlight to 



