HOUSE AND GARDEN 
45 
January, 1915 
house capable of being propagated in this 
way have several advantages over those 
started from seed. They bloom practical¬ 
ly from the start, often even while the new 
roots are forming; they are sure to come 
“true,” as they are in reality the same 
plant, while many plants from seeds are 
apt to vary more or less from type, both 
in color and in freedom of bloom. Two 
things are essential to make it worth while 
for you to start your plants in this way — 
plants that are in a healthy, vigorous con¬ 
dition of growth, and some place where 
you can keep the slips or cuttings at a 
"fairly even temperature of 50° to 55 0 
while they are making their new roots. 
Old, neglected or spindling plants will not 
furnish the right field for good cuttings 
or slips; and if they must be handled in a 
room or frame that gets too cold they will 
either root very slowly or fail to root at 
all, while too high a temperature will cause 
them to run up and make weak, spindling 
plants. To root quickly, the slips must be 
in just the right condition of “ripeness” or 
hardness. If the wood is too new or soft 
or too old and tough it will not root satis¬ 
factorily. To determine whether the wood 
is in just the right condition, bend the 
branch at right angles; if it “snaps” with¬ 
out breaking clear off it should root readi¬ 
ly ; if it bends or doubles up without break¬ 
ing, it is too soft or too tough. Cut the 
slip off clean at a slight angle; trim off the 
leaves close from the lower half of it, and 
if the remaining ones are large, cut them 
back about one-half. The cuttings may be 
from 2" to 4" or 5" in length. To root the 
cuttings, fill an ordinary flat full of clean, 
medium coarse sand, with a layer of drain¬ 
age material at the bottom, and give it a 
thorough watering. After any surplus 
water has drained off, mark off rows about 
3" apart, more or less, according to the 
size of the cutting, and insert the cuttings, 
one at a time, to about a third of their 
length, taking care to have the sand packed 
firmly about each one. They may be set 
as close together as they will go without 
crowding. Put the flat in any convenient 
warm place, and all the care that will be 
required during the next few weeks until 
they begin to root is to shade them for a 
few days from bright sunshine. After 
that, keep them watered often enough to 
prevent the sand from becoming dry at 
any time. 
If only a few slips are to be rooted, a 
still simpler method is to fill a water-tight 
dish, preferably a flat, rather shallow, one, 
with sand and water and place the cuttings 
in this. Keep the dish in a bright, sunny, 
warm window and add water frequently, 
so that the sand never gets dry even on the 
surface. Whichever method is used, as 
soon as the small, new roots form, the 
plants will be ready to be taken out of the 
sand and put into small pots or into one 
large pot of rich soil. This should be 
done when the new roots on the slips are 
still short. The sooner you can attend to 
them after they push out beyond the edge 
of the callous which forms over the cut¬ 
ting, the better. 
If old pots are to be used for the cut¬ 
tings, give them a thorough scrubbing to 
clean out the pores before placing in the 
slips. If either room or pots are lacking, 
the rooted slips may be placed, for their 
first shift, in an ordinary “flat” of soil, 
putting them about two inches apart each 
way, shading them as before for a few 
days from the bright sunshine to prevent 
their wilting. Among the plants which 
may be propagated in this way are gera¬ 
niums, heliotropes, begonias, fuchsias, 
lemon verbenas, patience plants, snap¬ 
dragons, salvia, colleus, petunias, lobelias, 
tradescantias, and a number of others. 
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Such a garden diary as this, with its record of suc¬ 
cesses and failures, should be of material benefit 
next season 
with saw and hammer from soap or 
cracker boxes; they should be from 2" to 
3" deep, with cracks left in the bottom or 
holes bored in them, to assure good drain¬ 
age. When you are ordering seeds in¬ 
clude also a supply of tags or labels; 100 
painted 5" w'ooden labels will cost you but 
twenty cents or thereabouts. 
Take Stock Now 
Before you get ready to send in your 
seed order it is also an excellent plan to 
look over your various garden tools and 
order anything which you need along with 
your seeds. The advantage of doing this 
is that the seed houses usually carry a 
good deal larger line of garden tools than 
any local hardware houses, especially tools 
of the best quality. With care and the 
amount of use they ordinarily receive on 
the home place, good tools of this charac¬ 
ter will last a lifetime — or at least until 
the children lose them. You can, for in¬ 
stance, probably get a trowel for ten or 
fifteen cents, while a good one will cost 
you fifty or seventy-five, but the former 
will probably not last you the first season 
through and will be pretty sure to give 
way some time just when you are very 
much in need of it, while the latter not only 
will outlast several of those of the cheaper 
grade, but will give you much greater satis¬ 
faction in its use during that time. With 
even a moderate-sized garden it will not 
pay to stint yourself in regard to hand im¬ 
plements. Mark your tools when you get 
them, and keep them all in one place, pre¬ 
ferably a place that can be locked. One 
of the little garden necessities which may 
seem a luxury is a real garden “reel and 
line,” but a reel and a hundred feet of 
braided line together will cost but one 
dollar, and, while it may be possible to 
make just as straight a row with “a piece 
of string,” I doubt if you can invest a 
dollar in any other garden tool which will 
be more likely to help the appearance of 
your garden. 
Materials for Starting Seeds 
The first seeds for the early garden 
should be started in February. Unless you 
have everything ready for this work you 
should give it your attention before the 
end of the month. If you neglected last 
fall to take in sand and soil for this pur¬ 
pose you may be able to get some now 
from some local florist; or, if you prefer 
an hour’s good, stiff work, take a pickaxe 
and crowbar and wheelbarrow and go out 
into the garden and pry loose half a dozen 
good-sized chunks and put them down in 
the cellar near the furnace, where they will 
gradually thaw out. In the woods, even 
after the ground is frozen, it is usually 
possible to get leaf mould without very 
much trouble, and a little sand, if any is 
to be had, will be found very useful also. 
Then you will need some flats. A number 
of these may be made in a half hour’s time 
Keep a Garden Record 
Why not start a Garden Diary the first 
of the year? Keep a brief record of dates 
and items of interest, such as when you 
were able to plant your sweet peas; when 
the first rose bugs appeared ; when you had 
the last frost; when you planted your 
various seeds for succession crops; which 
flowers proved to be the greatest successes 
as tall backgrounds, and what flowers 
pleased you as edging plants for borders 
or beds. Do not go too much into details, 
but simply jot down notes which will aid 
you in your next year’s work. The diary 
should result in “A Line-a-Day Book,” 
though it will not be necessary to write 
literally a line each day. 
Snapshots of your flowers in various 
stages of growth will add considerably, 
both in interest and beauty, to the appear¬ 
ance of your pages, and will at the same 
time be of practical value in later years. 
