296 THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



them at onee, or they will get entangled and broken about. A few 

 small branches of birch, with all the side twigs, stuck in each pot, 

 answer admirably for the small shoots to twine over, and the ap- 

 pearance is equal to the most expensive trellis that could be made. 

 A new birch-broom would be sufficient for a dozen or two. I shall 

 conclude these few notes by advising my readers to pay a little more 

 attention to the Sqiiills than they have hitherto received, and thus 

 add more beauty to their conservatories and windows than they have 

 yet had. There is nothing to equal them in colour ; and the beau- 

 tiful bright blue of Scilla Amoena, Peruviana, and Siherica, which are 

 the best kinds for indoor work, form a striking contrast to the other 

 flowers which will be in bloom at the same time. Put three or four 

 bulbs in each pot, plunge in cold-frame, and remove to conservatory 

 as they come into flower. I have said before that I prefer growing 

 bulbous plants in pots ; and I would add here, that where they are 

 grown in jardinets, I would advise that they be planted with one 

 genus only, such as all hyacinths, all tulips, and so on. When 

 mixtures of several genera are attempted they seldom look well, for 

 one colour is gone before the other is out, and failure is the result. 

 A mixture of colours of any one genus is much the best and far more 

 satisfactory ; at least, I have found it so, after furnishing many hun- 

 dreds of them for the drawing-room, and having my employers to 

 please as well as myself. ^^ 



PUETHEE NOTES OX EOSES TO ELOWEE AT 

 CHEISTMAS. 



BY HEXEY HOWLETT. 



JN the issue for August of this year, I furnished a few 

 advices on the preparation of Eoses for a winter bloom, 

 promising to seize the first opportunity for further ob- 

 servations on the subject. 



The peculiarly dry and warm month of September 

 which we have just experienced, will have brought the buds at the base 

 of the shoots to an unusual state of plumpness, and cultivators of pot 

 roses may in consequence anticipate a tine display of bloom in the 

 coming winter. I shall suppose they have been carefully potted, as 

 already advised ; I must also suppose they have had abundance of 

 water, wliich by the by has been more needed this summer than 

 usual. Lastly, I must suppose you have duly attended to the instruc- 

 tions for bringing them to a state of rest by removing them to a cool 

 and airy situation on the occurrence of damp autumn weather. 

 They may now be pruned, and have the wood dressed with a mixture 

 of soft-soap and clay, made into a thin paste by the addition of to- 

 bacco liquor. "With this dress all the wood, laying it on with any 

 old soft brush. The way in which the plants are pruned has much to 

 do with the production of flowers, for if pruned " too hard" — that is, 

 if the shoots are cut too close back to the old wood where the buds 

 are imperfectly developed — the growth from such buds when forced 



