Rooting Cuttings of Rock Plants

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23281, 25 February 1939, Page 10 (Supplement)

Rooting Cuttings of Rock Plants

- A very wide range of rock plants can be propagated at this season of tho year. If the old plants of aubretia were cut back after flowering they will now furnish a goodly supply of cuttings. Basal shoots of helianthemums, or side shoots stripped from the main stems with a "heel" of the old wood attached, will root with equal facility. The many species of alpine pinks are nearly ail propagated by cuttings of tho half-ripened growths. Some of these will be very small, and are best inserted in well-drained pans filled with very sandy soil. Each little growth in a cushion saxifrage is a potential cutting. If dibbled in pans of sandy soil they will soon root. Pentstemon cuttings, either side growths or top flowerless growths, cut to a jpint, root freely in a cold frame and may be left there until planting time. Cuttings of the mossy saxifrages root readily in a frame. Prepare thein by removing the lower leaves, and cutting to a node with a sharp knife. Firm 3*oung shoots of lavender and rosemary will root in the open air. They should be stripped from the main stems with heels attached. That useful hedging plant Lonicera nitida, also roots with ease in the open.