| Show Your Ld HAVE YOU rOLl TRIED TED LEAF CUTTINGS The amateur gardener always always delights delights delights de de- de- de lights in plants he has grown from seeds or from cuttings far more than he he does when his plants are the result merely of at a visit to the nursery and the outlay of ot a few tew silver sliver coins Theres There's a pleasure pleas pleas- ure in being able to point to a shrub in the garden and say to casual visitors See that bush bushI I grew it from a little slip But although growing things from seeds and from cuttings is funfar funfar fun funfar fun fun- far more clever is it to grow an entirely independent plant from a fragment of a leaf what leaf what we call caU a aJea leaf Jea cutting You didn't know it could be done Forgive me if it I Ianswer Ianswer answer in Shakespeare's words There arc are more things th-ings In heaven and earth carth than are dreamed of ot in your philosophy Certainly there are in ill a n garden Of Ot course all plants are not raised from leaf cuttings Those I know about are arc mainly tropical perennials perennials peren peren- nials which we in inthis this climate grow as houseplants From a single leaf leat either cither taken from your own plant or begged from a friend it is possible to obtain quite a a large number of tiny new plants Both the glovinia and the ornamental leaved begonias in particular make malte easy leaf lea cuttings Suppose you have a gloxinia or or can get a leaf o of this handsome flowering plant Take the leaf leat and make several cuts at intervals along the midrib or the central vein using I Ia a sharp knife and doing the cutting through from tho the under side of the leaf And b by the way a small leaf is no good it must be a fully grown mature one Now take a pot pot large large size size filled filled with ordinary loamy garden soil to which you have added a good quantity quantity quantity quan quan- of oC pure clean sand sanJi Have this soil moist but firm not mushy with moisture and press the leaf under underside side sido down on the surface of the earth in the pot using tiny stones to hold it in position so that each cut cutis cutis is 15 resting on the soil Watch Vatch closely and you will find fine that in due time tiny will wil form at ach each cut Leaves do not appear but the may be stored until spring or may be planted plant plant- ed at once If It stored keep them where frost will not touch them In planting give them the same treatment as you wo would ld any tender tender tender ten ten- der bulb planted in a pot The ornamental-leaved ornamental begonias require similar treatment save cave that here the leaf is cut into triangular sections with the scissors scissor each piece baving a point of its triangle at the I midrib so that part of this thick central vein is included in the thelea leaf lea cutting Sink this point with the piece o of midrib half an inch below the surface of pots filled with s sandy soil containing some peat m moss ss Roots will willbo bo sent down first then tiny leaves will appear at the surface surface sur cur face and each cutting will make an independent plant Try these and see seo what results you can get Remember that such soil must never dry out but that the pots must h have ve perfect drainage The warmth of an ordinary living room window is usually sufficient for tor forthe forthe the leaf cutting QUERIES Mrs A. A A. A At Bountiful writes Please tell me whether th the enclosed enclosed enclosed en en- closed flower is an annual or a perennial Ans Thic This flower is and may be either annual or perennial peren peren- nial But the one you enclose is nn an annual sort |
