August 29. 
THE COTTAGE GAliDENER. 
415 
1 often bo about the difference between the top and 
bottom-heat if the sun struck on the glass at all. 
IT one could make up a mild hotbed, at this season, 
| that would be likely to keep warm for six weeks, or two 
months, and use short cuttings not quite half-ripened, a 
| glass covering would do wonders with Hoses; but then, 
it is sheer folly for strangers to this kind of work to 
undertake it. A novice, if ho or she is ever so much in 
earnest, is as sure to havo mishaps with a hotbed and 
glasses as I am saying so. Gardeners want no rules 
for growing cuttings, and hotbeds they will have; but 
that is quite another question altogether. It is only 
here and thore that one meets with an unpractised 
hand who can manage a hotbed "With the help of a tidy 
labourer; therefore, it seems a pity to throw away good 
cuttings till you are more sure of success, by practising 
on more easy subjects till you thus get a right under¬ 
standing about managing a hotbed and glasses. 
All the writing and reading in the world will not 
insure success in growing cuttings of any kind without 
some practice ; and the simplest practice is surely that 
of planting cuttings in the open ground, and letting 
them take their chance, with a little watering now and 
then, and cutting off decayed leaves as they appear. 
We must never say or allow leaves to be pulled off 
from cuttings, wherever they are, as the force of the pull 
is sure to disturb the cutting, moro or less, and no one 
can fix a cutting a second time, so as to be sure of it 
afterwards. 
There is another thing in propagation which c<Tn 
never be learnt or taught in books, and that is, the 
proper state of a cutting, as to ripeness. Heaths and 
Roses come more under the rule than any other plants 
I can think of; it is true, if they are to be in strong 
heat at once, and covered with glasses^it is no matter 
how soft they are; but Heath cuttings without heat, and 
Rose cuttings for the open air, must be made at a par¬ 
ticular stage of ripeness, else it is a mere chance if they 
do not all fail. 
If they happen to be only a little too ripe, they will 
stand and look well for weeks and weeks, without mak¬ 
ing the least progress for rooting; and before it is over 
with them the bottoms are so hard that steel pens 
would root as soon as they. If they aro not ripe enough, 
they will rot at the bottom in a week or ten days, in 
spite of all that one can do for them. If hand-glasses 
are put over unripe Rose-cuttings, that is, unripe for a 
cutting, and more, if they are put into a shaded place, 
all the gardeners in England could not keep them from 
rotting, yet these might be just in the right state of ripe¬ 
ness for planting over bottom-heat. In general terms, 
we say, half-ripened cuttings, and that is about the mark, 
are to be selected for autumn use in the open air, but 
there is no sign by which we can tell when a shoot or 
twig is half-ripe. Every kind of plant has its own par¬ 
ticular looks when it is half-ripe, or in a fit state for cut¬ 
tings. It is from the “ looks ” that the practised eye 
can judge so well what the state of the cutting is at the 
time. Experience, and experience only, can teach the 
value of the “ looks.” 
There is another very great difficulty in the way of 
growing Rose-cuttings out-of-doors which is seldom 
thought of, aud that is, the natural soil and situation. 
There are soils on which Roses seem to grow without 
any care ; all the land round mo here, for miles, looks as 
if Roses ought to perish on it in a year or two. It is 
little better than black sand on the top, but Roses grow 
and bloom wonderfully well in almost every garden here¬ 
abouts. Cuttings of them will grow in this top soil 
without any sand or compost; but thore are plenty of 
gardens aud places where one would not fear to trust 
any Rose, judging from appearance, and yet the most 
difficult thing about such places is to keep Roses in 
good order, and not a Rose-cutting out of a dozen will 
strike in these gardens. All this has come within my 
own practice, and I can vouch for it. 
1 believe that all the Ilghridperpetual Roses, all the 
Climbers, aud Noisettes, and Chinas, can bo had on their 
own roots in all the great Roso Nurseries, if they wore 
asked for early enough. I also believe that most of the 
Hybrid Chinas, for Pillar Roses, and all the Hybrid per¬ 
petuate, will root as easily as the China and Tea Roses, 
but take longer time to do it. 
I know that the nature of the season, for the first 
month after the cuttings are put in, has a great influ¬ 
ence on the failures or success. Even the state of the 
plant from which cuttings are taken has a good deal to 
do with the business; so that between one thing and 
another, I have known gardeners in first-rate places, who 
were not always successful with their Rosc-cuttiugs; 
therefore, it is only but fair that all this should be known, 
in order not to be discouraged if our first, second, and 
third attempts should not be so profitable as we reckoned 
on at starting. 
I once had above four hundred cuttings of best 
perpotuals, which I lost one winter, after two-thirds of 
them were rooted a little, by a heavy fall of snow; the 
snow-water had no means of escaping except through 
my cutting-bed, but I never gave that a thought when 
the bed was made. If 1 were to make up my mind 
that I would root ten out of a dozen of Rose-cuttings, 
out of some thousands, in tho way of business, the 
whole to be in the open air, and no glasses were allowed, 
the drainage is tho first thing I would take in hand. 
Next to that, tho proper compost, and compactness of 
it; in the bed all my cuttings should be short, if I could 
get them so; none,would be above four inches long, and 
all should either have a heel, or be cut just below the 
part where that shoot started from. I would put them 
three inches deop in the bed, and three leaves would be 
all that I would allow for each cutting; but I do not put 
much stress on leaves at all after the middle of Sep¬ 
tember; but a firm leaf that will hold green for a time is 
generally valuable in a gardener’s eye, whether it is so 
in reality or not. I have put in hundreds without a 
single leaf to any of them, and they rooted as well as 
those that had a few leaves. After planting a lot of 
cuttings, I would water with a rose-pot to settlo the soil 
round them more perfectly, and I would place some 
boughs between them and the sun for the first three 
weeks; after that the sun is not so strong, and we never 
have too much of it. Before the winter set in, I would 
carefully lay on, between the rows of cuttings, and some 
distance on each side of them, a layer of small coal-ashes, 
leaf-mould, or rotten tan, so as to cover them all but the 
topmost bud. The Bourbons, aud any which I thought 
tender, or might suffer from frost, I would shelter with 
boughs stuck all round and among them. I would put 
a number, or name, to each kind; and next May I would 
water the whole bed once a week, whether they seemed 
to want it or not. The drainage being good, the water 
could not hurt them, and it might give them an early 
start. 
The cuttings should be in rows as regular as I could 
make them; four inches from row to row, and two 
inches from one cutting to another in the row. They 
would do closer, or wider apart, but there would be no¬ 
thing gained either way. Leaf-mould and sand, in equal 
proportions, would be one-half my compost for them; the 
other half would be from the surface of tho lightest part 
of the garden; the whole should be sifted through a 
fine sieve, and the bed be ten or twelve inches deep, 
on a good drainage, and in front of a wall with an east 
or west aspect. The border between the wall and the 
walk, for four or six feet from the side of the walk, is 
tho place for them ; not tho narrow border by tho side 
of the wall. A bed, four feet wide on a six-feet wide 
border of this kind, would take as many cuttings as any j 
