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tiie amateur’s flower garden* 
thickly in a bed of sandy soil, or even in a bed of cocoanut- 
fibre, and kept close and moist, without ever being very wet, 
or in a hot, stifling atmosphere. 
To make own-root roses from buds is not quite so easy as 
to make them from cuttings. The first step is to obtain a lot 
of precisely the same sort of buds as would be required for 
budding briers. The next thing is to prepare them in the 
same way, without removing the wood or the leaves. The 
wood, indeed, may be removed, but it is waste of time to 
remove it; but if the leaf is removed the bud will simply die. 
Having secured buds cut in the fashion of shields, without 
removing the wood, and, above all things, without removing 
the leaf that each must have when cut, plant these buds firmly 
in pans filled with sand, or on a bed of light loam covered 
with sand over a mass of fermenting material, or in a common 
frame. All the leaves must stand up and be kept fresh by 
frequent sprinkling, but there must be no slopping of water 
amongst the buds, or they will rot: in fact, any excess of 
moisture will ruin the best planned project for propagating 
roses with equal certainty and rapidity with the total aban¬ 
donment of the cuttings or buds to drought, by an act of for¬ 
getfulness or intentional rose-murder. 
To propagate by layers is the easiest plan of all; but it is 
impossible to make many roses in this way, because two or 
three are the utmost number obtainable from a shoot, w T hereas 
by cuttings or buds a strong shoot will furnish material for 
from twelve to twenty plants. But certainty may well compen¬ 
sate for lack of quantity with many readers; and our advice 
to lovers of roses who cannot see their way clear to strike 
cuttings, is to make layers of them in July and August in 
precisely the same way as carnations and picotees are layered. 
Lastly, but not leastly: If you will wait until the middle of 
September, you may then begin to multiply roses by what we 
have designated “ the currant-tree system.” To make short 
work of the subject, we may remark that roses may be struck 
from cuttings precisely as currant-trees are struck; but the 
business should be attended to while the roses yet have green 
leaves upon them. Many try this system and fail. It is all 
their own fault, for they allow the proper season to pass by, 
and suddenly make a rush at the propagating when the 
season for the work is past. From the middle of September 
to the end of October is the proper time for the practice of 
