ROSES— METHODS OF PROPAGATION. 



167 



and all during the next summer ; but never discard a seedling from the first blooms. 

 They may vastly improve with a few more months' growth. Protect during the first 

 winter, or lift and place thickly in a cool frame, replanting them the following spring, 

 when they may have richer soil, and be placed nearer or closer together, according to 

 the habit of growth already developed. 



Cuttings. — These are resorted to both for raising stocks suitable to bud or graft 

 other roses upon, and also for increasing the number of any desii-ed varieties in that 

 way. Cuttings emit roots readily in the open ground, if inserted two-thirds or three- 

 fourths of their length in sandy soil. They should be obtained from three-parts 

 ripened wood of the same season, and made 6 inches long if of rose growths and 

 intended to be grown into flowering 

 plants ; but 9 inches if stocks are desired 

 for future working. The rose cuttings 

 will need none of the dormant eyes 

 removed ; but in case of stocks for bud- 

 ding all but the two top eyes should be 

 carefully cut out. Only strong-growing 

 varieties are suitable for this method of 

 propagation. Eose cuttings and their 

 insertion are shown in Fig. 78. We 

 repeat they should be made from firm, 

 stout, summer shoots as soon as the leaves 

 can be shaken off in the autumn, placed 

 at once in the soil, deeply and firmly, 

 and they will emit roots in the spring : if only inserted an inch or two deep, in the 

 spring few, if any, will grow. 



The best dwarf stocks are obtained from the Manetti, the Briar, and De la Grif- 

 feraie. They are made and planted exactly the same as currant and gooseberry 

 cuttings, or, as shown in the preceding figure, after every bud, except two at the top, is 

 cut clean out. After remaining a year they may be transplanted, again closely ex- 

 amining the stocks for dormant buds near their base. This time they should not 

 be planted deeply, a couple of inches above the collar being ample. Eows may be 

 from 2 to 3 feet apart, according to the strength of the roses it is intended to work upon 

 the stocks, and the latter from 9 to 15 inches in the rows. 



a c b d 



Fig. 78. Rose oe Beiae (Autumn) Cuttings. 



a, Cutting prepared ; &, the same inserted ; c, slip or 

 cutting with a heel ; A, the same inserted and rooting. 



