THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



227 



oyster-shell — but mind it is the shell 

 the fishmonger keeps for luck, not 

 the one that comes to table in the 

 style of a dais for the enthroned na- 

 tive. At this time of the year I bar- 

 gaiu for all the oyster-shells from the 

 fishmonger, and have them spread 

 out in the yard to sweeten. They 

 cost nothing and are worth ten times 

 as much as all the patent pot-drainers 

 and other niggling, fid-fadding con- 

 trivances that people who never grow 

 plants are always making useless ex- 

 periments with. Fill the pot brim- 

 ful of stuff, and press it with the 

 fingers gently ; add a little more 

 stuff if needful, so as to leave only 

 half an inch of space from the top of 

 the pot. Place a bulb in the centre, 

 and press it down so as to imbed it 

 rather firmly one-half of its depth. 

 The catalogues say one-third ; but 

 when they have so small a grip of the 

 soil they are very likely to lose ba- 

 lance. If you have operated skil- 

 fully, there will be a large amount of 

 soil in the pot, and the bulb will be 

 so firm that you might roll the pot 

 on its side without displacing either 

 bulb or soil, and yet when the roots 

 begin to make their way, they will 

 easily penetrate the soil beneath 

 them without lifting the bulb. 



The best place I have on which to 

 stand the pots is a hard pathway 

 consisting of about two feet of weli- 

 trodden coal-ashes, and a strip of 

 stone pavement. Those placed on 

 the coal-ashes are covered with coal- 

 ashes heaped up in a ridge six inches 

 over them ; those put on the pave- 

 ment are covered with leaf-mould or 

 cocoa-nut dust. When I take them 

 out, I put them on the floor of the 

 house, or somewhere quite out of 

 sunshine, but in moderate daylight, 

 for a week, and then place them 

 where they are to remain for flower- 

 ing. If put in the full light at first, 

 a few hours' sunshine will sometimes 

 injure the growth that has been 

 blanched by the covering; but when 

 they have fairly begun to change to a 

 healthy green, full light does them 

 good, and they ought to have all that 

 can be had till the blooms begin to 

 open, and then they should be shaded 

 to prolong the display. But I must 



tell you that I always place a batch 

 in a cool house as soon as they are 

 potted, without covering them at all, 

 and let them take their chance of 

 weather, except that they are kept 

 safe from frost. These always bloom 

 superbly, and prove that in a mere 

 shed, with good daylight overhead, 

 hyacinths may be bloomed as well a3 

 in the best house in the kingdom. 



There are two points of great 

 importance in flowering potted 

 hyacinths — namely, plenty of air and 

 plenty of water. Keep them rather 

 dry, and cool and quiet, till they have 

 made good roots, and then treat them 

 liberally. Instead of telling you 

 how to make dumpy stems of a pro- 

 per length, it seems much more need- 

 ful to caution the cultivator against 

 attaining to the opposite extreme of 

 imperfection, for hyacinths are more 

 often seen unreasonably long than 

 unreasonably short. To get up the 

 hunchbacks, shut them up rather 

 close over gentle bottom-heat ; and 

 to prevent those that start well be- 

 coming too long, give air at every 

 suitable opportunity, and let them be 

 as near the glass as possible. A 

 close spike without a break is charm- 

 ing, but when the bells are half an 

 inch or more apart the spectacle is 

 piteous. 



As soon as the potted bulbs have 

 done blooming, I take out the tallies 

 and call them all innominata. It is 

 a very easy matter now to convert 

 them all into good stock for beds and 

 borders, and that is the best way too 

 to obtain stock, because as you begin 

 with first-rate sorts, so you have only 

 to classify them afterwards in colours, 

 and you may have fine breadths of 

 spring flowers out of doors. First of 

 all, do not allow any to make seeds, 

 but nip out the spike a few inches 

 above the bulb before the last of the 

 flowers is exhausted. If you want 

 seeds, you have but to leave them alone, 

 and they will soon be smothered with, 

 huge pods ; but as the seeds are of 

 no use, why exhaust the bulb to pro- 

 duce them ? Now prepare a bed of 

 rich sandy soil. My plot for this 

 purpose consists of the sandy and 

 peaty stuff thrown out of pots in 

 " shifting ;" this is chopped over with 



