CUTTINGS.

Taranaki Daily News, 21 August 1930, Page 18

CUTTINGS.

. The present is a good time to put in cuttings of pentstemons, verbenas, geraniuiUß and other such like subjects. The cuttings should be made of the fresh young growths, and should be about four 'or five inches long. Remove the lower leaves.and cut just below a joint; be sure and use a very sharp knife —half the cuttings made are spoilt by -blunt knives. The soil for the cuttings should be light and sandy; a mixture of one part each .of loam, leaf soil and sand well mixed and put through a half-inch mesh sieve is about right. If a cold frame is available put about three inches of the above soil in it, making it firm, and then insert the cuttings. If a frame is not available get a box about a foot deep and make some holes in the bottom for drainage; the holes should be P.t least half an inch in diameter, and there should be one to every four inches. Having procured your box and made the ho'les for the drainage, put in about one inch of scoria or gravel; on ths place about one inch of rough leaf soli, and then on this about four inches of the compost when well firmed. Now put . in your cuttings, the. tops of whieh should be just below the edges of the box. Then put on top a pane or two of rrlass, and you will have a little propagating frame. The cuttings will need shading, so either put the box in a shady place or cover with paper or scrim. A shady place is not a da*‘k place; all that is needed, is shade from the direct rays of the sun. The cuttings should be watered when first put in, and the glass should not be put on until the foliage of the cuttings has dried somewhat. The. glass must be lifted for an hour or so daily, or it may be left off altogether at night., which is much the better way; but care should be taken to replace the trlass before evaporation is great enough to cause the leaves to become flaccid.