THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 199 



keep the temperature Tvithin a few degrees of what I have mentioned 

 above. Give air when the weather will admit, and water with care. 



This brings us to Februarv, and the time to think about training 

 and repotting the pLants. My way of deah"ng with them is to let 

 them become quite dry, and if they flag a little, so much the better, 

 provided they do not suffer too much, for then the branches can be 

 brought down without much trouble, and little fear of brsaking them. 

 If they are watered as usual, and tied down when the branches are 

 quite stiff and full of sap, the chances are that the inexperienced 

 would spoil half their plants, through the branches breaking or slip- 

 ping off. The most skilful in these matters are unable to manage it 

 without an accident happening occasionally, and the advantage of 

 letting the plants get rather dry when the branches are first brought 

 down is not quite so well known as it should be. When the branches 

 are once brought down, there is not much difficulty in matters after- 

 wards. I manage this by cutting a flower-stick into lengths of 

 three or four inches each, and after a nick is cut in the top to pre- 

 vent it slipping off, a piece of matting is tied round, and then they 

 are securely f\istened in the soil ; the matting brought up over the 

 branch, which can be pulled down as low as it is required, if care- 

 fully managed. After this is finished, the tops must be nipped ofl^, 

 and as soon as the plants are recovered, they should be potted 

 into eight-inch or 2^-size pots. This will be the last shift they 

 will require for the season, and must, therefore, have a little time 

 and trouble spent over it by the cultivator, so as to do it in a 

 proper manner, for it depends upon how this is done whether 

 the plants grow well or not. The pots should be thoroughly 

 clean, and have about a couple of inches of crocks broken small 

 in the bottom for drainage, and a thin layer of the rougher por- 

 tions of the soil placed over, to keep the drainage from getting 

 choked up. They must be potted firm, and kept rather close for a 

 few days afterwards, to get established ; but after this, they will 

 require plenty of air, and the young growths to be trained regularly 

 out with neat flower-sticks, and topped once more about the end of 

 March. They will now require plenty of water, and a dose of 

 manure water twice a week, until they come into flower, will help 

 them on wonderfully. 



The question of the best soil for these plants can be soon dis- 

 posed of, for they require nothing but good fibrous loam and tho- 

 roughly decomposed cow-dung or hotbed manure. To make myself 

 easily understood upon this subject, I will state that the loam should 

 be obtained by paring off the top three inches of meadow or com- 

 mon land, and laying it in a heap for six or twelve months before 

 using. Common garden soil is of very little use for any kind of 

 plant grown in a pot ; it runs together too close for the roots to 

 ramify into it. VVhen the good loam is wanted for using, the side 

 of the heap should be chopped down, and mixed with cow-dung which 

 has been exposed to the weather for a year or two, in the propor- 

 tion of two barrowfuls of the former to one of the latter, and about 

 a third of a barrowful of sharp silver sand. For the fancies a greater 

 proportion of sand will be necessary ; and half a barrowful of leaf- 



