The Garden Under Glass

214 THE GARDEN UNDER GLASS the growths so that they will be equidistant from each other. Now begins the layering proper. With a sharp knife a cut is made about an inch below the base of the lowest leaves. When the growth is cut half-way through immediately below a joint the knife is given an upward turn and is made to pass right through the joint. Thus we form a kind of tongue and yet leave the young growth connected with the old plant. The growth is then pressed into the soil so that it is upright, the cut being open and the tongue bu ried in the soil. To keep it in this position pieces of wire bent at one end are used as pegs, a little soil is worked over the old ball and the layering is complete. By watering the layers, closing the lights, shading the plants from bright sunshine and syringing them daily, we may in about six weeks’ time expect new roots to be thrown out, thus allowing the severance of the layer from the parent. Selection of Plants for Layering For the general cause of progress it may be well to spare a word on the selection of plants. To layer all and any is not a good policy. The plants should be chosen for their vigour, their general good habit, their freedom from disease, their profusion of flowering and the quality of having all the flowers blooming at the same time. Added to this we have to consider the value of the individual flowers, their colour, their form, their substance, their fragrance, their size, their lasting properties, the non-bursting of the calyx, and the strength and length of the flower stem. Those which have most merits should be propagated largely and the others in their order of merit.