Would you like to speed up the propagation of a favorite plant? Grow a few “hothouse” plants in a “cool” greenhouse. Accelerate growth on plants in outdoor frames? Get a head start on your seed-grown annuals and vegetables, or hasten the sprouting of patio plants grown from bulbs or tubers? If you answer yes to … Read more
You could be the hybridizer who creates a series of miniature, everblooming gloxinias in various flower colors and leaf types. Or crosses the jacobinias in cultivation to produce plants better suited to the window sill and home greenhouse. Or the person who works diligently with those miniature amaryllids, the cyrtanthus, to obtain larger flowers in … Read more
If you grow your new poinsettia plants from hardwood cuttings, you will find that they are easy to root and easy to grow to full, perfect flowers. This is the way I do it: After the blooms have faded, gradually withhold water for about a month until the soil in the pot is quite dry, … Read more
As with other arts, an “overnight success” takes at least 10 years of practice in the propagation of plants. Anyone can become an “eighty percenter,” but in order to achieve the final twenty percent toward perfection you must put a maximum of personal interest into your work. You must live with your cuttings, seeking constantly … Read more
Cuttings taken now of desirable trees, shrubs, and vines may furnish a practicable means of propagating. Stems of some deciduous species, such as Rosa multiflora, privets, forsythias, and weigelas may be cut into 1’ foot sections in the late Autumn. If these sections are packed in moist sand, sphagnum moss, or sawdust and stored over … Read more
A fascinating facet of gardening is the science of plant propagation. Gardeners consciously or unconsciously use one or more propagation methods in producing their garden plants. The simple act of raising plants from seeds is one important method. “Slipping” a geranium, planting a gladiolus corm, or transplanting young strawberry runner plants are other recognized methods … Read more
The plant breeder is truly a creator, for he works, not with such dead chemicals as pigments, but with those infinitesimally small yet living chemicals galled “genes.” Genes: Bearers Of Heredity In Plants Genes are the bearers of heredity in all life, from mankind to the grass itself. It is hard for us to realize … Read more
Would you like to carry on your plant hybridizing throughout the year? You can if you own a small greenhouse. What’s more, many greenhouse-grown perennials bloom in far less time than those grown in the garden. To the hybridizer, this time is most important. Hybridizing Daylily If you start daylily (hemerocallis) seeds in the greenhouse … Read more
Many amateur gardeners say that growing alpines from seed is a complicated procedure, not to be attempted in the home garden. I have grown thousands of alpines here in my Pennsylvania garden, and find that raising them from seed is both a simple and pleasant pastime. The first, and one of the most important steps, … Read more
At the end of the growing season, tender plants are often too large to pot and bring inside. To have them for winter windows or to keep a start for next year’s outdoor garden, many of them can be “slipped.” How To Slip Plants Here’s what you need to do: Plants grown from slips (cuttings) … Read more