PROPAGATION BY GRAFTING.

THIS may be performed in the forcing-house in January, and in the open air in February and March. There are many modes of grafting; those most eligible for roses are the common "whip grafting," using clay as a covering, and cleft grafting," using wax or pitch: the former is generally the most successful; and if the stocks are potted a year before being used, strong blooming plants of the perpetual roses may be made in three months.

A neighboring amateur has been very fortunate in grafting roses, merely gathering his stocks from the hedges in January and February, and immediately grafting and potting them after the operation; in doing so covering the union of the graft firmly with mould, using no clay, so as to leave only three or four buds above the surface, and placing them in a gentle hot-bed, in a common garden frame, keeping them very close. In this simple method of operating I have seen eighteen or twenty grafts grow, but owing to the stocks not being established in pots a year as they ought to have been, these plants have not made strong and luxuriant shoots the first season. Stocks many be potted in October if none can be had established in pots; these may be used in January or February with much suc

cess.

In whip grafting of roses in pots it will be as well to omit the usual tongue by which in open air the graft is, as it were, hung on the stock; this tonguing weakens rosegrafts too much; as their shoots are generally pithy, a slice of bark with a very small portion of wood about 11 inch in length, taken from one side of the stock where the bark is clear and free from knots, is all that is required; then take part of a shoot about seven inches in length, and

pare its lower end down quite thin till it fits accurately on the place in length and breadth, from which the slice of bark and wood from the stock was taken; bind it firmly with strong bass, which has been soaked in water, and then place clay over it, so as to leave no crack for the admission of air presuming this graft to be in a pot, it may be plunged in sawdust or old tan, leaving two buds of the graft above the surface in a gentle hot bed, and kept close till it has put forth its shoots: when these are three inches in length, air may be admitted gradually by propping up the light; if perpetual roses, they may shortly be removed to the greenhouse, where they will bloom in great perfection in early spring. After this first bloom their shoots should be shortened, and if required they may be planted in the open borders, where they will flower again and again during the summer; if summer roses they will flower but once, but they will make strong shoots and establish themselves for another season; if a forcing-house is used instead of a hot-bed frame, they must be plunged in the same materials, as this keeps the clay moist, and generally insures success; if convenient, grafting wax, made as follows, may be used in lieu of clay: 1 lb. Burgundy pitch,

lb. common pitch, 2 oz. bees'wax, and oz. mutton fat, melted, and put on with a brush while warm in cleft grafting, for a description of which I must refer to Loudon's Encyclopædia of Gardening, article "grafting." Grafting pitch must alone be used if the grafts are small; this is a very nice mode, but difficult to describe, and the same result may be obtained by rind-grafting,* a very neat method before this operation the stocks must be placed in the forcing-house for a few days till the bark will run, i. e.

:

*The best stocks for this kind of grafting, are the Blush Boursault and Rosa Menetti; the latter was obtained a few years since from Italy.

part readily from the wood; the top of the stock must then be cut off cleanly, and without the least slope; an incision, as in budding, must then be made through the bark from the crown of the stock downwards, about one inch in length, which can be opened with the haft of a budding-knife; directly opposite to this incision a bud should be left if one can be found on the stem of the stock, the graft must then be cut flat on one side, as for whip-grafting, and inserted between the bark and wood, bound with bass, and covered with grafting wax. In March this may be done with young shoots of the current season from the forcing-house; they must be mature; as a rule, take only bloom shoots that have just shed their flowers-these are always ripe. To those who love roses, I know no gardening operation of more interest than that of grafting roses in pots in winter; blooming plants of the perpetual roses are made so quickly, and they are so constantly under observation; but for this a small forcing-house is of course necessary; a house twelve feet by eight feet, with an eighteen inch Arnott's stove, will do all that is necessary; and the expense of a structure of these dimensions is very moderate. What can be done in the way of propagation in so small a house with method is quite astonishing; a hot-bed frame will give the same results, but the plants cannot be viewed in bad weather with equal facility; that interest attached to watching closely every shoot as it pushes forth to bud and bloom in all its gay attire is lost. To the mind happily constituted, this is a calm and untiring pleasure; the bud breaking through its brown wintry covering into verdant leaves, replete with the delicate tints so péculiar to early spring, and unchecked by cold and withering blasts, makes us feel vernal pleasures, even in January; and then the peeping flower-buds perhaps of some rare and as yet unseen variety, add to these still calm pleasures, felt only by those who

really love plants and flowers, and all the lovely creations of nature.

PROPAGATION OF AUTUMNAL ROSES.

As with the Summer Roses, these may be propagated by layers, budding, grafting, and by cuttings; the latter mode is the only one requiring especial notice, as the other methods applied to Summer Roses are of equal use in propagating these. All the families of this division are propagated with great facility by cuttings; in fact, with China, Bourbon, and Tea Roses, it is the only eligible way of getting plants on their own roots. There are three seasons when this operation may be performed with success, in spring, summer and autumn.

For spring cuttings, it will be necessary to resort to the forcing house in the month of March, when those roses that were commenced to be forced in January, will be just shedding their first crop of flowers; these blooming shoots will then be ripe, and as a general rule, fit for immediate propagation, either for cuttings or buds. It must be borne in mind, that no shoots are mature until their blooming is past.

The cuttings may be made with three joints or buds, from the lower end of which the leaf should be cut, leaving the others untouched; the cutting must then be inserted about one inch into a very small pot of light mould, or peat and sand, equal parts: with rare sorts two buds will do, or even one; in the latter case, the bud must have the leaf attached, and a small portion of wood below the bud; it must be inserted in the pot so that the bud is slightly covered with the mould. The pots should then be plunged

in sawdust or old tan, within a gentle hot-bed, and kept perfectly close, sprinkled with tepid water every morning, and shaded from the sun. In about a fortnight they will have taken root, but they must not be removed from this close frame till they have made a shoot from one to two inches in length. They are then safe, and may be removed into another frame, still with gentle heat, and having air every day to harden them. In a week they will be fit to pot into larger pots, and they may then be removed into the greenhouse or cold frame as convenient, till required for planting out in the borders in April and May: the pots used for the above purpose are very small, 24 inches deep and 1 inch over at the top; if more convenient, three or five cuttings may be placed round the side of a larger sized pot, 31 inches deep by 3 inches over. This method saves some trouble, but the plants are apt to be checked when potted off; pots of the latter size must be filled one third with broken pieces of pots, on which the base of the cuttings should rest; the small pots require no drainage.

For summer cuttings in June and July, ripe shoots may be taken as above directed, planted in pots, and placed in a cold frame, kept close, and sprinkled every morning. These will root slowly, but surely; for autumnal cuttings any convenient and spare shoots may be made into cuttings, and planted under a hand-glass in a warm exposure, about the middle or end of September: these must have air in mild humid weather during the winter, and be gradually exposed to the air in April by tilting the light: by the end of April they will be fit for potting. All the autumnal roses will grow readily if the above methods are followed. The Damask Perpetuals only are slow in rooting, and are propagated with more difficulty.