THE HARDY AZALEA. 
243 
their roots about them, and without disturb- 
ing the earth that is about their fibres. The 
holes, therefore, for their reception must be 
large enough to take in the ball of earth and 
all the fibres without disturbing them ; and 
they must, after being trodden in well, be 
well watered, to close the earth about their 
roots. 
When the plants are to be placed in a 
mixed plantation where they are to remain, 
there must be spots prepared in the same 
way as the beds ; that is to say, holes eighteen 
inches deep must be dug out, as large in 
diameter as the plant is supposed to require, 
namely, from two to three feet, and filled up 
with the compost already mentioned for the 
beds. Into these holes the peat soil is to be 
conveyed, and, besides being filled to the 
surface, must be watered in, to settle it down 
solid, so that, after planting, the soil may be 
above the surface in a sort of hillock. Here 
the plants, of the size required, are to be 
planted and well trodden in, in the usual 
way, so that the collar of the plant shall be 
close to the surface of the peat soil, which 
must be some inches higher than the sur- 
rounding surface of other soil, to allow for 
sinking down, which it will after a few slight 
showers. The peat must be Avell watered, to 
close the earth about its roots, and here it 
will grow for years in health and strength, 
until its roots have completely filled the por- 
tion of made ground, when it will be some- 
what checked in its exuberance by the 
nature of the soil which its fibres will then 
reach. 
RAISING THE AZALEA BY LAYERING. 
The only mode of propagating the Azalea 
profitably is by layering. For this purpose, 
plants must be placed in the centre of the 
regularly formed beds, four feet apart, down 
the length of bed required according to the 
number. These plants should be selected 
with plenty of branches coming from near 
the ground. These branches have to be bent 
downwards, so that a portion may be pegged 
down from one to two inches below the sur- 
face. Let this be done in autumn ; and as 
growth is the object while young, pick off all 
the bloom buds. You may either slightly 
notch or slit the branch just where it is to 
be pegged, or you may trust to the bending 
down alone to cause the roots to push out ; 
let the head of the branch be above ground, 
and when all the branches round the plant 
(which is called the stool when thus appro- 
priated) are pegged down, and their growing 
ends are as firmly held above ground, the 
whole may be watered, to settle the earth 
close about them. When their growing time 
comes, the branches thus pegged down all 
round will send forth their leaves and new 
branches, whether they strike root or not ; 
but if the weather prove warm and dry, let 
the whole bed be watered ; and this must be 
repeated occasionally until the growth of the 
branches be completed. They may then be 
examined by turning the soil aside carefully, 
and if they are well rooted, they may be cut 
off close to their roots ; if not, they must go 
over another season before they are separated 
from the stool, or mother plant. Many layer 
the Azalea without cutting at all, but the 
slitting of the stem, that is, cutting a slice 
nearly half way through and an inch or two 
long, promotes the rooting ; whether this is 
by preventing the return of the sap, or by any 
of the other means that the writers on the 
subject pretend, is quite immaterial. It is 
one way of half cutting off the supplies from 
the root, and therefore inducing the half-sepa- 
rated branch to make an effort to supply the 
deficiency. The effect is the growing of 
roots at the place where the interruption is 
created. 
PROPAGATION BY EARTHING UP THE PLAN1 
If a plant of Azalea be put in the ground 
so deep as to earth up the branches two or 
three inches, it is found in the course of a 
season or two that all the branches that have 
been sunk, have freely rooted the whole dis- 
tance they have been under ground. This 
has been found the case in old plantations, 
where, in the course of time, the earth has 
been raised ; and an old plant of Azalea is 
frequently found so much sunk in the ground, 
and so fully rooted where the base of the 
branches have been below, that every branch 
formed a plant, on pulling the old stool to 
pieces. It is quite certain that deep planting 
is injurious to all those subjects which do not 
strike root freely ; but it is equally certain, 
that if others are buried to all but tl e tips 
of their branches, all the parts within a given 
distance of the surface will strike out fresh 
roots, and maintain themselves independent 
of the old root. The willow is of this descrip- 
tion, as is the common laurel ; so also are cab- 
bages and caulifiowers, and all the cabbage 
tribe ; hence that practice of earthing up so 
generally and beneficially practised. The 
same principle no doubt governs, that ope- 
rates in half cutting away the supply by 
notching; that is, by sinking the old root deep 
enough to lose the influence of the air, which 
is necessary to all roots, the means of supply- 
ing the branches are lessened, and the branches 
make the effort to make up the deficiency by 
forming roots of their own. It is therefore 
certain, that if the old plant of Azalea be sunk 
so that the base of the branches shall be a few 
inches under the soil, they will emit roots, 
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