HOUSE AND GARDEN 
July, 1910 
The Process of Layering 
HP HE beginner quite naturally looks 
upon seed as the origin of plant life 
•—and it of course is. But Nature does 
not limit herself to seed alone for plant 
propagation; indeed she behaves with 
some things as if she expected almost 
their every effort in the struggle for ex¬ 
istence to- be thwarted. These are the 
things which we commonly speak of as 
spreading from the roots or from suckers 
and stolons; and it is this determination 
in every bit of branch or root to live and 
grow which makes the process known as 
layering possible. This is the simplest 
means other than sowing seed at the gar¬ 
dener’s disposal for increasing the num¬ 
bers of any given specimen; and being a 
perfectly natural method of reproduction 
the most inexperienced are practically cer¬ 
tain of success with it. 
PROPAGATING TRUE TO TYPE 
It shares in two advantages, too, along 
with propagation by cuttings and by graft¬ 
ing, over seedage. The first is the cer¬ 
tainty of its always preserving the iden¬ 
tity of a species or a variety; seedlings do 
not always “run true,” but play curious 
pranks sometimes, strongly suggestive of 
those unruly human offspring in whom 
litle resemblance to either parent or any 
known ancestor can be traced—those pro¬ 
fligates or geniuses, as the case may be, 
who startle their relations and sometimes 
stir the world. 
This does not happen commonly, to be 
sure, with the plants ordinarily dwelling 
in a garden, but there are innumerable 
things with which it does happen occa¬ 
sionally—usually highly bred varieties— 
and some with which it invariably occurs 
and which therefore positively cannot be 
actually reproduced from seed. 
The second advantage which plants 
produced by layering have is a curious 
anomaly of youth and maturity combined 
-—for a plant produced by layering is as 
old as the parent plant in one sense, yet 
as young as its own newly formed roots 
and independent life in another. And in 
this combination there seems to dwell all 
the lusty vigor of youthful growth and the 
luxuriant productiveness of maturity. 
An absurd snowball (Viburnum opu- 
lus, sterilis ), not more than eight inches 
high, which I once saw growing in a bo¬ 
tanic nursery and proudly bearing two 
enormous trusses of the familiar, closely 
packed tiny blossoms, brought this fact 
home as nothing before it ever had, for 
ordinarily a plant that size would be only 
a seedling of a year’s growth, at least two 
or three years removed from even the most 
precocious attempt at producing blossoms. 
FAMILIAR EXAMPLES 
Nature makes use of the process of 
layering in many species. The sweet trail¬ 
ing arbutus of the woods is one example, 
the noxious poison ivy is another; the 
strawberry of garden and field, the to¬ 
mato and the grape or berry canes lying 
along the ground are more familiar ones 
perhaps, the former indeed being regular 
walking plants, journeying along from 
season to season by means of their “run¬ 
ners,” which creep out and root to form 
new plants. The grape or berry canes 
root at the nodes of the stems without any 
especial appendage from which roots de¬ 
scend. 
The operation depends of course on 
the tendency of plants to produce roots 
from what is called the “cambium zone,” 
or layer, of their stems—that is, the layer 
of tender tissue between their bark and 
the wood, along which the nutritive juices 
flow. And as all roots are produced by 
stems ordinarily—not stems by roots— 
this tendency is not in the least remark¬ 
able, though it may seem so from our 
habit of putting the cart before the horse 
and thinking of the roots as giving rise to 
stems. Given half a chance most stems 
will strike root—layering is the “half a 
chance.” 
Anywhere along a stem a root may ap¬ 
pear, but the most favorable place to invite 
such appearance is at the nodes, just as at 
this point growth of a branch above 
ground may be most confidently expected. 
TWO BLADES WHERE ONE GREW 
Young branches are chosen usually 
because they are more pliable and easily 
bent down and they may be removed from 
the parent plant when they have rooted, 
without affecting it. The season of great¬ 
est activity is most favorable to the speedy 
rooting of layered stems, so of course 
spring or early summer is to be chosen for 
the work. 
There are, generally speaking, four 
methods or forms of layering, though 
some differences in detail bring the num¬ 
ber to double this—but they are all modifi¬ 
cations of or developments of the one idea, 
which is to cover a node in a stem with 
earth. 
Roots tend eternally away from the 
light and towards moisture, hence they 
must have earth to bury themselves, where 
the one is excluded and the other con¬ 
served. The little pile of earth over a 
stem is all the encouragement they need 
and the activity commences usually at 
once. 
To “layer” a vine or more or less pros¬ 
trate growing shrub, lay a branch or cane 
of the previous season’s growth—unless 
otherwise specified—down along a shallow 
trench and cover it at intervals of four or 
five inches, over a node, leaving a node or 
two between each covered space so that 
shoots may rise as well as roots descend. 
When these shoots have made a good start 
fill in the uncovered spaces up to and 
around them, until they have the appear¬ 
ance of separate little plants growing from 
the ground, but do not sever them from 
the parent plant until late fall or in the 
spring. The time of course depends on 
when the branch is laid down and also 
upon the plant's ability to root quickly. 
Some things must be left undisturbed 
much longer than others. 
Serpentine layering is advocated by 
many, as it is supposed to induce a more 
even flow of sap and therefore a corre¬ 
spondingly even distribution of roots along 
the layered stem. It is the same as the 
simple layering just described except that 
the stem is bent above the ground at the 
uncovered spaces, while the portions to be 
covered are curved down beneath it, the 
“serpentine” form being repeated to the 
end of the branch where the tip finally is 
turned down into the earth. As the tend¬ 
ency of sap is to flow to the end of 
branches and make there the strongest 
growth, it is not unlikely that there is an 
advantage in thus intercepting it by 
curves, though some do not think it worth 
while. Quick growing vines seem to re¬ 
spond to it very satisfactorily, however; 
and it is worth trying on the season’s 
growth of a Clematis or Wistaria. 
A single plant of Honeysuckle, or al¬ 
most any hardv vine, may be carried the 
length of a wall or fence by simply bury¬ 
ing each season’s longest branches either 
in the serpentine layer or the simple form, 
and going on each season from where the 
last left off. In such a situation the plants 
springing from the layered sections do 
not need to be severed and transplanted 
for they are already in the situation where 
they are wanted. 
LAYERING SHRUBS AND TREES 
With shrubs or trees branches must of 
course be bent down to reach the earth. 
Usually they are held in place by a forked 
stick driven firmly oyer them; then the 
end of the branch is turned up abruptly 
so that the tip stands erect out of the 
ground where it is held by tying it to a 
stake. The bark will be ruptured by the 
sharp bend underground, and this is usu¬ 
ally enough of an obstruction in the flow 
of nutriment to induce roots to put forth 
in search of more; but lest it should not 
be, a cleft may be made in the branch, near 
a node, from below up and not through 
more than a third of the total thickness. 
Sometimes a ring of bark is removed en¬ 
tirely around the stem, but this is not ne¬ 
cessary ordinarily. It is well to do it, how¬ 
ever, with plants having exceptionally 
hard, thick bark. 
(Continued on page 51.) 
