In an article on this subject an English horticultural journal describes
the method pursued by a London florist. After stating that out of a case
containing 310 cuttings only five failed to root, the article proceeds:
The case or box is made of common rough deal boards. It is five feet
six inches long and one foot in depth. Within half an inch of the top a
groove is cut inside the box, into which the glass is slid, after the
manner of a sliding box lid. In the end of the third week in July the
box was placed in the kitchen garden under the shadow of a high north
wall; it was then about half filled with good turfy loam, to which had
been added a little leaf mould and a good sprinkling of sharp sand. The
soil was then pressed down very firmly (the box being nearly half full
when pressed), and then thoroughly well soaked with rain water, and
allowed to stay uncovered until the next day. The next day good stout
cuttings were taken of all the roses, both tea and hybrid perpetual,
which it was desired to add to the stock. They were then inserted
closely and firmly in the soil, just over the bottom leaf, the glasses
were slipped on and puttied down; the grooves in which the glass slid,
and even the joints in the glass, being filled with putty, so as to
exclude the air. The whole thing completed, nothing more remained to be
done but to leave the box in its cool, shady nook for five or six weeks,
when the growing points of the free starting kinds gave notice that the
glasses might be removed, a bit at a time, with safety. Nothing could be
more simple, or demand less skill, and the operation may be carried out
successfully by an amateur at any time during the season, when good firm
cuttings can be got, and when six weeks' tolerably fine weather may be
counted on. The success of the whole thing depends on having the glasses
fixed so that they may not be removed until the cuttings are rooted, and
in placing the boxes in a shady place. So treated, carnations and many
of our shrubs and herbaceous perennials may be propagated by unskilled
persons with certainty, and without much trouble.
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