FOURTH NATIONAL FLOWER SHOW 169 
place on a board and cut them up, like noodles, in pieces about two inches long. 
Then prepare your coldframe, rake and smoothe it. Upon the surface sow 
thickly the cut-up rootlets and cover them with an inch of pure building sand. 
When freezing weather approaches, cover the sand with dry leaves complete 
to the sash, place the sash on the frame, and then forget it all until the next 
March. At that time remove the leaves, but retain the sash, and water the 
sand gently every morning. It will not be long before that sand is alive with 
young phlox plants, which will soon form a perfect green carpet. Just as soon 
as the sun becomes stronger, remove the sash during the day but replace it 
again in the evening. About May ist carefully lift the young plants and set 
them out in the garden, in straight rows about a foot apart, and by the middle 
of July every plant will be in full bloom, but only about 15 inches high. The 
plants will continue to bloom right through to the fall. Then they should be 
lifted and placed in their permanent locations. The following year these plants 
will produce from four to eight healthy shoots, growing to their natural height, 
and at no other time can one see more luxuriant or healthy plants. And what 
is more important of all, every plant will be an exact reproduction of its parent. 
In a single season you have produced more plants than you know what to 
do with, and so you have an excellent opportunity of making some of your 
friends happy. 
Now, would you like to increase some of your choicer Oriental Poppies 
in your garden? I knew you would say "Yes." Well, here is the story: 
Directly after your plant has ceased blooming in July, lift it carefully, 
so as to bring to the surface all of its roots. They are quite different from those 
of the Phloxes, as they are fleshy and more like young horseradish. Cut these 
roots, in lengths of about two inches, up to within an inch of the heavy carrot- 
like root, and plant these pieces directly in the spots where you wish the Poppies 
to grow, about two inches below the surface. By September you will enjoy 
a healthy plant above the ground wherever you have planted a piece of root, 
and the following spring you will have the finest crop of flowers — and, mind 
you, you need not sacrifice the old plant either, for set back into the ground after 
the thin roots have been removed, it will live on and replenish the part which 
you have removed. 
Exactly the same operation can be performed with the lovely Anchusa. 
A single plant of each of the foregoing should produce an increase of from 
ten to twenty-five of a kind. 
Have you a clump of Michaelmas Daisies in your garden? If so, just lift 
it, in April, and you will find that instead of possessing one plant you have 25 
perfect little plants, each one with a perfect set of roots; and if you plant each 
one of these youngsters, allowing them a liberal space, at least two feet each, 
they will give you a veritable cloud of color in the fall. 
Have you ever grown Stocks, and enjoyed looking upon a huge cabbage- 
like plants with the most luxuriant foliage, and until about five minutes before 
