CUTTINGS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 19 February 1941, Page 3

CUTTINGS

HOW TO ROOT THEM. One of the peculiarities of gardening and a particularly interesting one, is that a person of little experience may succeed in the cultivation of a ditlicult plant that denes the efforts of a life-time gardener. In no field is this more marked than in propagating from cuttings. Cuttings can be rooted out of doors during summer. bin they must bo carefully sheltered from wind and shaded from sun. The usual practice is to select short shoots of soft or only partially ripened wood, four to five inches long, and set them at two or three inches apart in a bed of wellprepared. sandy soil. Among the easiest shrubs to increase) in this way are the forsythias, or Golden Bell shrub. These are valuable for massing, succeed in ordinary] soil, and Hower early in the year. A popular type is sieboldii which has| graceful arching stems bearing the.i golden bells, and another of more erect! habit is F. viridissima. which bears' profusely. Veronica, escallonia, and fuchsia are also easily increased in the summer, i The cuttings may be inserted in flower pots or a prepared border. A. good general compost is made up of) two parts fibrous loam, one part leaf; mould, and one part silver sand. Peat; may be used in place of leaf mould.’ Good draining is essential.