244 THE FLORIST. 



plants are more easily managed, or are more beautiful in their flowers ; 

 and however anomalous it may appear, it is no less true, that their 

 successful cultivation is the exception, not the rule. Those who 

 would enjoy them in perfection, without the disappointment alluded 

 to, should purchase flowering bulbs from some known grower of them. 

 When once in a flowering condition, they are easily kept so. Half 

 a dozen procured from such a source are worth a whole easeful 

 sent by your friend from the Cape. G. L. 



WINDOW-GARDENING. 



There are many who have not the convenience of a greenhouse, 

 who are, nevertheless, equally fond of flowers, who spend con- 

 siderable sums yearly in purchasing plants, and bestow a great 

 deal of pains in attending to them. It is not to be denied too, 

 that, after all their endeavours, their plants frequently look sickly, 

 and finally die. The blame is often laid at the door of the Florist 

 who supplied them for not giving healthy plants, when in almost 

 every instance the fault lies with the buyers. The plants, it is true, 

 which come into the market have generally been under a high state 

 of cultivation. They have been regularly watered, potted in soil ac- 

 cording to their diff'ereni habits, and grown in pots according to their 

 size. The heat, air, and light have all been arranged and regulated 

 as the utmost skill and experience could suggest. The transition 

 from all this regularity to the tender mercies of the purchaser is soon 

 felt. Drowning or starving, or neglecting altogether, is no uncom- 

 mon fate. The pots are taken home, put into pans or saucers, de- 

 luged with water, and the water left in the saucers, or they are set 

 in some conspicuous place, and left to their fate. In the first case, 

 the leaves turn yellow and drop, the flowers fall, and in a very short 

 time all that can be seen of them is their naked stems, with little 

 tufts of green on the tops or points of the shoots, which a few days 

 before were in perfection ; in the latter case, the plants die with all 

 the leaves and bloom upon them. Nearly all the evils attending 

 plants grown in windows are to be traced to these two causes. I 

 will therefore attempt to lay down a few general rules, which, if pro- 

 perly attended to, will do away with nearly all the complaints under 

 this head. 



1st. Never water but when the plants actually want it. That is 

 easily known by feeling the soil with the finger, or giving the pot a 

 rap on the side with the knuckles. While it is moist no water is 

 needed ; when it feels dry, then water — which latter will not be oftener 

 than three times a- week in autumn and winter, and every day in 

 spring and summer, — giving it copiously every time, and allowing it 

 to run away entirely from the plant, so that the pots may never stand 

 in it. The water used should be either rain or river water. If neces- 

 sarily from the pump or spring, it ought to stand in the air a day or 

 two before usino-. 



