Cuttings

Cuttings are branches or portions of branches of trees or shrubs, employed to produce new plants, by burying the lower end in the earth so that new roots may arise from the nodes. Nothing is more easy than to propagate willows, fuchsias, pinks, geraniums, currants, gooseberries, &c. in this way; but many other plants, commonly propagated by cuttings, require greater attention on the part of the gardener, warmth, a uniform damp atmosphere, and shade. The term cutting is, however, usefully extended by most horticultural writers to any part of a plant which can be separated to become an individual similar to its parent; thus some plants may be propagated most readily from simple leaves or portions of leaves, others from a segment of stem bearing a single leaf with a bud at its base, others from offshoots at the base of the parent plant, some again from the younger shoots, and others from partially ripened wood, and so on. Hence there is room for considerable experience and skill, and detailed instructions should be sought by the amateur florist in works on horticulture (e.g. Johnson's Dictionary of Gardening). The most convenient general method, however, is to strike cuttings in well-drained shallow pots or boxes of silver sand overlying a little sandy peat or loam; shade and water being applied with discretion, and bottom heat only in special cases, which of course include the majority of stove plants. Hardy fruit-trees may be best propagated by cuttings taken after the fall of the leaf, and planted on the north side of a wall, but not so close as to be constantly in shade.