Cuttings are taken in two ways.
1. With a heel; that is a small portion of the wood of the stem from which the twig grows.
2. Without a heel; being cut through just below a bud.
Fig. 4.—Rose cutting without a heel, 4 leaves cut, 2 leaves left.
Cuttings under glass.—Cuttings of the choice kinds of Teas, Hybrid Teas, Hybrid Perpetuals, and Chinas are raised under glass, taken from pot plants as soon as they have flowered in the spring. The cuttings are put in pots filled with fibrous loam and silver sand, about six in a five-inch pot. When ready to root at the end of two or three weeks, the pots are placed in a frame on bottom heat to start growth. The same plan is pursued in the autumn, with cuttings taken from plants grown out of doors; but they do not strike as rapidly as those taken from pot plants earlier.
Cuttings in the open ground.—This is an interesting and easy way of getting a good stock of many kinds of hardy, strong-growing Perpetuals, Sweet Briars, Ramblers, etc. And it may be successfully carried on from early in August to the middle of October.
Cuttings are inserted three inches apart in rows, leaving some ten inches between each row. They may be either set in a trench, or dibbled into a specially prepared bed. I have tried both plans, and find the following very successful. A bit of ground, partially but not too much shaded, is forked up; a layer of good rotten manure laid on it; upon this three inches of leaf mould; on this again three inches of sharp, sandy road-scrapings—silver sand would be as good or better, but here the gravel road-grit is handy. The bed is then stamped down as hard as possible, until it forms a firm solid mass. The cuttings are then inserted in rows—a hole of the right depth for each being made into the compost with a smooth sharp-pointed stick the size of a lead pencil—a long wooden penholder is a good dibble. Into this hole the cutting is thrust till its base rests firmly on the bottom of the hole, and the soil is pressed tight round the stem with the fingers. When all are in place a thorough soaking of water is given them; and except for firming them in when worms raise the soil about them, they must not be disturbed until the top leaves begin to fall. We shall then see which are likely to strike, and can pull out those whose wood has begun to shrivel, as they are dead.
Many of these cuttings will show flower the next summer. And by November—i.e. fifteen months after planting—they can be lifted and planted out in their permanent quarters.
The other plan is to make a little trench eight inches or so deep in good loamy soil, with a layer of silver sand at the bottom. The cuttings are set against the sloped side of the trench, and it is then filled up with soil and stamped in very firmly. I find this answers best for the Penzance Sweet Briars; but personally I prefer the former plan for other roses.