sand roses? Everj^ propagator has his favorite 

 method; different methods are perhaps necessary in 

 different sections of the country. In G-eorgia and 

 Florida for instance, all that is necessary is to take a 

 piece of ripened wood of any length, of the Moss, 

 Provence, Damask, Hybrid Perpetual, or, in fact, 

 any class of roses, put in the earth any time during 

 winter and it roots and grows finely; but in our 

 northern climate and soil, as every propagator knows, 

 the same method with the same classes of roses would 

 result in a complete fadure. I claim nothing more 

 than ordinary skill as a propagator, but think I can 

 produce plants of any variety or class of roses, a?^ 

 healthy and as strong, by the method which Orchis 

 condemns — that of green wood cuttings — as can pos- 

 sibly be produced by any other method, budding or 

 grafting on the Manetti not excepted. The cuttings 

 however are not struck in summer, for if done at that 

 season, constitutional debility is certain to be propa- 

 gated as well as the plants, but during the spring 

 months only and from healthy plants, which are 

 prepared in the following manner: 



The plants intended for propagation ar.e kept in 

 pots at least a whole year before any cuttings are 

 taken from them ; the first spring they are slightly 

 forced by being put in the greenhouse in March, 

 plunged in saw-dust or tree leaves out of doors about 

 the last week in May, which is as early as we can set 

 plants out here on account of late frosts, they are not 

 grown in very large pots, just sufficiently to insure a 

 healthy without a rampant growth. Pots are occa- 

 sioFially turned during summer to prevent too much 

 rooting in the earth bensath, never allowed to suffer 

 for want of water during the growing season. In Oi^- 

 tober the plants are all repotted while yet in full 

 leaf, those that really need it, get a larger pot, but 

 most of them are placed back in the same pots in 

 which they have grown all summer. 



The object being to give therh fresh food of 

 good quality more than to increase the quanti- 

 \ ty by a larger pot; a month later they are pruned 

 and set in a cool greenhouse where they get no fire- 

 heat till about the middle of December, and du- 

 ring that time very little water ; about the first 

 week in January, they commence growing ; the last 

 week in February they are ready to take cuttings 

 from, and during all the month of March yield an 

 immense crop, after which they are allowed to bloom; 

 and all that are not sold at retail by the end of May 

 are turned out ot pots into the open ground and are 

 not propagated from any more. 



When in good growing condition the p'ants are lib- 

 erally but not over watered, and get manure water 

 once a week, the hot water pipes are kept sprinkled 



with sulphur which prevents the possibility of mil- 

 dew, and the syringe is freely used lest the red spider 

 would attempt an entrance. Two thousand plants 

 are now on a broad stage in one of the houses I have 

 charge of, that have been treated in the manner 

 above described, they are at this time CJany. 21st.) 

 in full growth, and I think if friend Orchis could see 

 them he would be convinced that they would not 

 produce a delicate class of plants; two thousand more 

 are ready to be removed from the cellar to the green- 

 house the first of March, but these also have been 

 kept in pots all last summer and will therefore be in 

 a condition to yield a large number of cuttings during 

 the month of April. 



Cuttings are not taken off until the shoots have 

 acquired some degree of maturity or near the time 

 of flowering, when they are in the best condition. 

 In propagating new varieties or any kinds that are 

 scarce, I take off a whole shoot and divide it into single 

 eyes, every eye in this way producing a plant with the 

 most une.-ring certainty. This method is new so far 

 as I know, for I have never seen or heard of its being 

 practiced by any one else. I do. not however, seek 

 a patent for the discovery, but give it to the Monthly 

 for the benefit of all interested in rose culture. I 

 found it out by trying experiments in striking various 

 Greenhouse and other plants from leaves only, the 

 rose yielded to my inquiries and wishes in the most 

 satisfactory manner, and the rapidity with which 

 new and valuable varieties can be propagated in this 

 way is truly marvellous. Varieties however that 

 are not scarce, I take off in the usual way — aj^oung 

 shoot with a heel, set them in a bed of sand three 

 inches deep over a tank of water, heated by one of 

 Ritchinc;s' No. 4 boilers. 



There is no rose with which I am acquainted, 

 even the most stubborn of Mosses, but what will 

 yield to this process and root readily, if cuttings are 

 obtained early enough in the spring; but in order to 

 obtain the cutting early it is necessary that the plants 

 be raised in pots at least one season before being 

 used for propagating. I know that plants are somt- 

 times taken from the ground late in Fall and early 

 in Spring, potted, and set in the greenhouses, and 

 are propagated from the same season, but the com- 

 paratively few cuttings that are obtained, come rather 

 late and never make as good plants as those grown 

 early by a proper course of preparation. 



Every propagator knows that the difficulty of 

 striking most cuttings increases as the natural heat 

 of the atmosphere increases towards the end of spring 

 or beginning of summer. 



Cuttings of roses are well rooted in from twenty 

 to thirty days, according to the variety or class. I 



