THE 



SAHDE^j 6U10E„ 



;».v:c;-ic.;f.vcg.-v; : : _ >i > : 



April, 1860. 



yEDLING stock demands just now all the attention that 

 can be given it, both at the nurseries and in private 

 and public gardens. The severity of the winter and 

 its protraction from mid-October to mid-March has 

 severely thinned the stock of all soft-wooded plants, 

 even in the best places, and those who trust to the 

 chapter of accidents in wintering stock in cold pits and 

 unheated houses, have now but little to perplex them, or, 

 rather, are perplexed that they have nothing. To make the 

 most possible of a reduced stock demands the exercise of 

 care and vigilance, and to find substitutes for bedders that 

 cannot be obtained in sufficient quantities needs judgment and 

 calculation. A brisk heat now does wonders among soft- 

 Wooded plants, if they are kept in a moist air and with plenty of light, to 

 supply cuttings for propagation ; and the work of increasing the supply 

 must be kept up till bedding-out time, so as to insure quantity, even if 

 the quality is not of average merit. 



Those who set to work, even at this late period, may, by striking good 

 cuttings of geraniums, calceolarias, petunias, and verbenas, supply them- 

 selves with plants quite as good, perhaps better, than the majority of those 

 that are sent out in June at two or three shillings per dozen ; and those 

 who arc not disposed to purchase, or have not the convenience to secure a 

 supply of bedders by spring propagation, must fall back on annuals to carry 

 them through at least the early part of the season. Good plants of fuchsias 

 to bloom well late in the season may be had from cuttings, even as late as 

 May, and verbenas and petunias struck now will be very little inferior for 

 beds to those rooted a month or six weeks ago. If well treated they will 

 bloom as well, though a week or ten days later. It should be remembered 

 by amateurs that, to get spring cuttings, the plants should first be got into 

 vigorous growth ; they require a little forcing and a frequent use of the 

 syringe to get a supply of plump green shoots. The old autumn stems are 

 of little use, but shoots of three or four inches long, or even two inches 



VOL. III. — xo. IV. E 



