LAYERING SHRUBS

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 318, 31 March 1928, Page 26

LAYERING SHRUBS

Many garden shrubs, especially shrubs and creepers, are very difficult to propagate, for cuttings wither before they have had time to make roots and if seed is produced it takes, if an attempt is made to sow it, some years to growing into a flowering plant. In such cases recourse is often had to layering. Authorities vary in opinion as to the most suitable month for the work, but undoubtedly it is best done when sap is still moving briskly in the shrubs or plants and when the new growth is getting toward maturity. There should also be moisturfe enough in the soil to encourage the layered parts to throw out new roots. Before the layering is done, the soil round the shrub or creeper should be forked up several inches deep, to provide a suitable place for the roots of the layers. It is also advisable to put down a little new sandy soil. Pieces of the shrub are then brought to the ground and pegged down, first having a notch or slip made in them to encourage the formation of new roots. In the case of a clema.tis or any other thing that is small in the stem, it is quite sufficient to scratch off a bit of bark, instead of trying partly to sever the stem. For large branches that are layered the system known as “ringing” is sometimes adopted. This consists of taking off a ring of bark all round the stem about an inch in length. The portion of the stem pegged down is then covered with soil. There should be about Ift of the branch left beyond the point where it is layered, with all leaves and tips intact. The time taken by a layer to root depends very largely on the species to which it belongs; some things, such as aucuba, box, laurel, spirea and veronica, root in a few months; while others, including azalea, daphne, jasmine, kalmia and rhododendron, may take a year to root. Late autumn is the best time for moving the layers and setting them up as independent plants. After a subject has been layered a few months the entire severing of the parent stem will rapidly increase the production of new roots.