October, 19 ii 
need not be lost if you will take the 
trouble to learn the art of rooting cut¬ 
tings. It is not a very difficult operation, 
but if you have never done it, be sure in 
attempting it to keep track of all the de¬ 
tails involved. A cutting is a piece of the 
plant—usually the end of a shoot or 
branch or new growth—about two or 
three inches long. In taking a cutting be 
sure that the wood is of the right condi¬ 
tion of firmness, neither too hard nor too 
soft. This condition is determined by the 
snapping test. When the shoot is bent 
between the fingers it should snap, making 
a clean break. If it bends or doubles up 
without breaking it is too old, or too soft, 
and will not root readily. Take the cut¬ 
tings off clean with a sharp‘knife, cutting 
a little on the slant and preferably just be¬ 
low a joint, but this is not, in most cases, 
imperative. Remove the leaves from the 
lower half and shorten back, or cut off 
the outer halves of the remaining large 
leaves. This will give you nice, clean, 
stubby little cuttings, all ready for the 
rooting medium. 
How to Make Cuttings Root 
HE simplest and surest way to root 
cuttings, where only a dozen or two 
are required, is by the saucer system. 
Your outfit will consist of a large soup- 
plate (or any other deep glazed earthen¬ 
ware dish) and some clean, gritty medium- 
coarse sand. Fill the dish two-thirds full 
of sand, and make as wet as possible with¬ 
out having water stand on the surface; 
insert the cuttings around the edge as 
close as they will go without touching. 
(A double circle may be put in by placing 
a small inverted saucer or a block of wood 
in the center of the dish.) Place the dish 
in a warm light place, such as a sunny 
window. Be sure to keep the sand satu¬ 
rated until the cuttings root; that is the 
whole secret of success. 
When more cuttings are to be rooted, 
take a flat (about 12x19x3 inches is a 
convenient size) ; put a layer of sphag¬ 
num moss or leaf-mold in the bottom and 
fill with gritty sand. Wet this down thor¬ 
oughly and insert the cuttings about an 
inch apart in rows two to three inches 
apart. Keep where the night temperature 
will be as near fifty to fifty-five degrees 
as possible, and shade on sunny days from 
nine to three o’clock, as the sand will not 
be as wet as that in the saucer system, 
and the cuttings must not be allowed to 
wilt after they are put in it. If the 
weather is very hot, spray or sprinkle the 
tops of the cuttings two or three times 
during the heat of the day, to prevent 
wilting. In cold weather the cuttings will 
root more quickly if the box (or plate) 
is kept where the bottom of it can receive 
some direct heat, as on bricks over a 
radiator—care being taken, of course, 
not to let the sand dry out. 
Potting Off the Rooted Cuttings 
HEN the roots are from a quarter 
to half an inch long, the cuttings 
should be transferred to pots. For the 
| HOUSE AND GARDEN 
soil use a rich garden loam with enough 
leaf-mold and sand added to make it both 
light and friable—so that it can’t be 
squeezed into a ball in the hand. If you 
cannot obtain leaf-mold, some old spent 
manure, such as has been used in a hot¬ 
bed, will make a good substitute. Use a 
two-inch pot if possible. Don't stick a 
little cutting into a three or four-inch 
pot and expect it to thrive, because the 
soil will not dry out quickly enough, and 
will get sour. If large pots must be used, 
put three or four cuttings in each, around 
the edge. It will pay to get small pots 
and do the job properly. 
Take the cuttings carefully front the 
sand, don't pull them out. Fill a pot level 
full with soil, make a hole with the left 
forefinger and with the right hand lower 
the cutting into place. With the thumbs 
and forefingers enough soil is crowded 
about the cutting, which is put in to about 
half its length, to hold it in an upright 
position. Then give the pot a couple of 
sharp raps on the bench or table to com- 
When this photograph was taken the dahlia 
had been in the ground all winter. It also 
survived the two succeeding winters 
2 45 | 
press the soil, which is further compacted 
by an even pressure with the thumbs. If 
the work is properly done, the cuttings 
will stand up firmly in the soil. 
The potted plants are given a thorough 
watering, and placed where the holes in 
the bottoms of the pots won’t get clogged 
up, a flat full of coarse gravel or cinders 
is ideal for this. For several days be very 
careful to shade during the heat of the 
day, and if the weather is very hot, be 
careful also about letting the little pots 
get dried out, as they will very quickly if 
left in the bright sunshine. New pots 
should always be soaked in water until 
they cease to bubble. 
When first potted off the little plants 
may be placed close together. In a week 
or two, if they come along nicely, they 
will need to be spaced. Never let them 
get crowded. A few days neglect may 
mean the drawing up choice specimens 
into useless leggy plants. In a few weeks, 
if all goes well, your dozen or more little 
plants will be ready for re-potting, which 
condition will be indicated by the small 
white string-like roots that have come 
through the soil and ramified about the 
balls of earth inside the pots. Shift with¬ 
out delay to pots a size larger, using the 
same soil except that a quart of bone flour, 
or fine ground bone, should be added to 
each peck of potting soil. Remove the 
plants by inverting the pot and knocking 
1 lie edge sharply against the edge of a 
bench or table. Fill the new pot about a 
third full of soil, hold the plant in position 
in the center, and fill in around the ball 
of roots with new earth, rapping the pot 
smartly and using the thumbs, as before, 
to make the soil compact. The surface 
should be about half an inch below the 
rim of the pot, to leave a space to hold 
water when the plants are being wet. 
Pots four inches and up in size will 
require “crocking,” that is, giving extra 
drainage by having pieces of broken pots 
or other rough material placed in the bot¬ 
tom to keep the hole open. 
Give all the air possible without chilling. 
A Persistent Dahlia 
N the summer of 1908 our dahlias were 
so prodigal with foliage and so stingy 
with blossoms that we got discouraged 
and left the tubers in the ground to perish 
with the winter’s cold. Imagine our as¬ 
tonishment, the following spring, on see¬ 
ing a supposedly dead cactus dahlia push 
its young shoots as bravely through the 
ground as if it had had "the customary 
winter storage and May planting out. 
Unless it accidentally got some of the 
leaves from the neighboring bulb bed, it 
had had nO protection whatever; though 
doubtless the southern exposure and the 
fact that it was close to the stone wall of 
a warm cellar had not a little to do with 
its survival. Having shown this extraor¬ 
dinary determination to live, this dahlia 
was left to its own devices and at the time 
of writing is blooming well after its third 
consecutive Connecticut winter in the 
open ground. H. S. A. 
