THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION, March 31,1857, 
and flourishes in an open situation and light soil, 
especially if the soil contains chalk, or has lime rubbish 
mixed with it. 
SPRING PROPAGATION. 
(Continued from page 423.) 
Bedding Geraniums. —Now is the time to prove the 
grand secret of propagating all kinds of Geraniums, Pe¬ 
largoniums, and Storkbills from single leaves. I said last 
autumn, and I hold it to he as true as The Cottage 
Gardener itself, that every leaf of all these kinds may 
be made into a plant before planting-out time next May, 
provided always that the bud at the bottom of the stalk is 
equally true, and that you take it and know how to strike 
it; and if you do not know how to strike it just listen to 
me, for I can positively graft a scarlet Geranium on a 
Walnut tree, and surely 1 can tell how to strike leaves 
with or without buds, but without buds they do no good 
after rooting. I rooted some last year without buds; 
but some which were put in last summer on the outside 
of pots, which were plunged in a border on purpose for 
such experiments, were considerably thicker at the bot¬ 
tom of the leaf-stalk in October than they were when 
they were first put in ; and probably, at a certain age 
or size, these leaf-stalks might be able to form a bud, or 
shoot, or sucker, from the thick end, but the practice is 
of no gardening value. 
I once kept for seven years an Orange leaf which I 
rooted, and it made no bud; hut I have read of some 
i which budded in less time, and of some which took 
1 fourteen years to bud, and after that made good plants. 
These facts are interesting, but are of no real use. To 
| grow leaves into plants, however, is of the highest value 
in some cases. Suppose a gardener had a new seedling 
: worth ever so much per plant, and that he could get five 
cuttings from it just now to begin with—would not five 
and twenty plants be of more value than five from the 
| jive cuttings, which could be divided and then multiplied 
by five times five? But the question is how to do it. 
The smallest-sized pots are the best for all scarce 
Geranium cuttings. One cutting to be put in a thumb 
pot, and thirteen pots to the dozen, ought to be a safe 
rule in gardening practice, but not in nursery practice. 
One or two per cent, is all the verge on “profit and 
loss ” which most nurserymen allow to their Geranium 
propagators ; but then they do nothing else besides. 
I prefer 60-sized pots, and four leaves in a pot, because 
thumb pots are such fiddling work to water, and then 
they are apt to be dry before you can turn your back. 
The frame, or pit, or propagating house for this work 
must not be quite so damp as for ordinary propagation, 
not, at least, till after the middle of May. The easiest 
way is to cut up a stem into so many joints, the cut to 
he just above the joint; then you have the length of stem 
between the joints for a cutting. Each length has one 
leaf and one bud at the upper end, and each ought to be 
thrust into dry silver-white sand in a flower-pot saucer as 
soon as it is cut. The dry sand will suck up the moisture 
from the cut ends in a short time, and thus render them 
less liable to damp. The cutting pot to be filled as for 
other cuttings, but with a thicker covering of sand on 
the top—so thick that the bottom of the cutting is just 
between the sand and the sandy compost below. The 
leaf side of the cutting is to he the farthest from the side 
of the pot, and if the leaf is top-heavy, or is a very thin 
i leaf and not able to bear up, it must be tied to a little 
stick; and lastly, the centre of the pot must be left with 
a hollow to take the watering without wetting the cut¬ 
ting. 
j If, on the other hand, leaves are to be taken without 
cutting the shoots into lengths, you will have to take a 
good slice behind and below the bud, as you would for 
budding, and the flat side of the slice is to be next the 
side of the cutting pot, and quite close to it. The top 
of the bud, or part where the bud is out of sight, to be 
just below the surface, and no more. All the rest of the 
proceedings are the same as for joint pieces. From 60° 
to 70° is the best heat for these kinds of cuttings ; for 
if the heat is much higher the buds will start before 
roots are made to sustain the growth, and that might 
kill them. 
I have struck a potful of a dozen leaves sliced off, and 
all resting against one flat, tally-like stick in the centre 
of the pot, and I have docked leaves by cutting one-half 
of them off all round, in order to get them to stand up 
“ pricked-ear ” fashion; for if they are allowed to flag or 
droop they do little or no good. The young plants 
they make are more like seedlings than established 
plants; therefore the plan is most useful for new or rare 
kinds. 
The roots of Oeraniums make cuttings as well 
as the tops, and they grow into plants much sooner 
than leaf cuttings. At this season, or when we examine 
the stock of old plants, I mean bedding plants, we 
find some are gone at the collar, while the roots and 
top are as fresh as larks. There is not one moment to 
be lost when you find the black disease has encircled the 
collar of a favourite kind. If the black is not all round 
the stem you may, perhaps, get rid of it with a careful 
slicing away of the black part, like a surgeon dressing a 
bad, jagged wound; but in most cases the safest way 
is to cut down the plant, and make cuttings of the tops 
and roots. 
Thus last week I found one of my best seedlings 
from Punch had gone black at the collar, and there 
was more than an inch black all round the bottom of 
the stem. I cut this plant below the black part, and 
just over the top of where the first roots sprung from ; 
I then pulled up the stump gently, so that part of the 
top roots are now above the surface of the mould, and I 
shall chance it to make shoots as a Dahlia root does. 
A safer plan would be to shake out the roots from the 
mould, and make independent cuttings of the largest of 
them, cutting them into four-inch lengths, and planting 
them close together round the sides of a pot with little 
more than a quarter of an inch above the surface. The 
top of this plant, which was a single-seedling stem, I 
cut into three good, substantial cuttings; but, being 
stout and not very ripe, I left them twenty-four hours 
before I put them in. One ought to examine the roots 
of all dead or dying Geraniums, and if it is a valuable 
kind we should try to save it by root cuttings. 
Again, we often find at this season that healthy-look- 
ing plants do not seem to “ get on ” in the winter pots, j 
the soil not agreeing with them, or it had got too dry or 
too wet to be fit to give the requisite impulse to the 1 
roots; and, again, we put very scarce or very valuable 
plants into pots too small for them, and in soil too poor 
in the autumn, in order to have them kept more safe 
through the winter, that being the best means we know 
of for plants which are then taken up from beds or : 
borders. The whole of the large collection of Gera- i 
niums which were sent into the Experimental late last 
autumn were thus treated with very poor, sandy soil 
and very small pots, and the other week we shook out 
every one of them, and put them into fresh, good soil 
and larger pots, and we had only one death—a varie- : 
gated kind—out of above 900 plants. 
Now, the practice of the best flower gardeners squares 
with all this, and, moreover, they, or at least the great 
and greedy among them, take advantage of these spring 
examinations, and cut off, or “ borrow,” as they say, as 
many roots as they think the plants can well spare, and 
make cuttings of them, and put one hundred of such 
cuttings in 32-sized pots, and place them in strong, dry 
heat in some of their hothouses, and the plants jrom j 
