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THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



and answers exceedingly well. We 

 have beard a few failures with these 

 stoves, and found that the cause was 

 opening the draught to the full, and 

 causing the stoves to get red hot. 

 The proper way to manage them is, 

 throw in some red-hot charcoal, and 

 then nearly fill up to the top, and fix 

 the door of the ash box so as to allow 

 only the sixteenth of an inch of space 



for draught. By this method the fire 

 will continue to burn slowly for 

 eight to nine hours. All these things 

 require some amount of skill and 

 experience, and those who are not 

 used to them should get a little prac- 

 tice before frosty weather sets in, for 

 it is no joke to be trying in vain to 

 light a fire while the wind is in the 

 east, and the thermometer at 20°. 



HOME-GROWN HYACINTHS. 



ESPECIALLY ADDRESSED TO THOSE WHO THROW BULBS AWAY. 



If you ask at the nurseries what to 

 do with hyacinths when they have 

 done flowering, they will tell you 

 they are of no use at all, and it is 

 best to destroy them than attempt to 

 cultivate them another year. If any 

 dealer in bulbs tells you a similar tale, 

 take refuge in the ejaculation of Mr. 

 Burchell ; don't dispute the question, 

 but make up your mind to buy 

 hyacinths in order to keep and in- 

 crease them, and on no account to 

 throw them away when their first 

 bloom is over. I think my practice 

 will suit all amateurs, from the richest 

 to the poorest ; and I can give you 

 an outline of it in a few words. In 

 the month of September every year 

 I purchase a collection expressly for 

 pot culture, and make it a rule to 

 have at least two of a sort, and of 

 some sorts sixes, twelves, and so on. 

 I pot them in batches, and never pot 

 any till the last week in September ; 

 that I find early enough for those to 

 bloom soon after the turn of the year ; 

 and to have them earlier than some 

 time towards the middle of January, 

 is to have them out of season. No 

 spring flower should ever be seen till 

 after the beginning of the year, ac- 

 cording to old style ; and with the 

 many fine subjects now in cultivation 

 for winter flowers, they really are not 

 wanted earlier. The stuff I use is 

 cucumber-bed and gritty leaf-mould ; 

 that is to say, the bed with its top 

 stratum of turfy-loam and rotted 

 manure, well chopped over, and leaf- 

 mould added, the compost consisting 



of at least half manure in a perfectly 

 mellow condition. I never use silver- 

 sand, never lay the compost up, never 

 make a fuss of any kind, and in 

 twenty years of the same practice 

 never yet saw a bulb injured by any 

 sort of vermin. I label all the varie- 

 ties, and when they bloom I have full 

 value for my money and my labour. 



To bloom these bulbs in a satis- 

 factory manner, but very few precau- 

 tions are needful. Six-inch pots of 

 the ordinary make answer admirably 

 for all ordinary purposes. I don't 

 believe in those chimney-pots, or in 

 any of the other queer pots that have 

 been made for hyacinths. I see as 

 fine spikes produced in what we 

 Londoners call 48 : s as in those lengths 

 of drain-pipes which are used in 

 many places for the same purpose ; 

 and what is of some importance too, 

 the bulbs in these pots ripen well, 

 pi'oduce good offsets, and if allowed, 

 will bloom tolerably well the next 

 year. 



In potting bulbs I never ram the 

 soil hard, as I should for fruit-trees, 

 camellias, and strawberries. Let no 

 amateur cultivator suppose that be- 

 cause ramming is needful in one case, 

 it will answer in all. No ; if the soil 

 in a hyacinth pot is too hard, the first 

 roots emitted from the bulb, having 

 to encounter a sort of pavement, will 

 immediately thrust the bulb up into 

 the air, or at least throw it on one 

 side like the leaning tower of Pisa, 

 only rather less sublime. Put in only 

 one crock — nothing better than an 



