I once had a neighbor who claimed she didn’t know a thing about gardening.
However, she seemed to make things grow by just sticking them in the ground. Then, by chance, I learned her secret. One day I saw her turn an empty fruit jar over a rose cutting, and I knew. Six months later, that rose had a bloom on it.
I decided that I, too, could do that, so whenever I put a fuchsia, rose or geranium cutting out in the open ground, I put a jar over it. I found they rooted in much less time and the percentage of successful attempts was much higher. Since then, I have started such hard-to-root plants as camellias, eugenia and dapline in pots with a quart jar set down over the cutting.
Kept in a sunny window, the heat is reasonably constant. The jar holds most of the moisture, and the pots need to be watered only when vapor ceases to collect on the sides of the jar. I have since used glass jars – really miniature greenhouses – to protect young tomato plants or other garden plants when frost is predicted.
by Mrs G Darwin – Salinas California – 62835
