JUNE. 117 



they should receive plenty of moisture. Our plants have been staked 

 some time, to enable us to " top-dress," as it is termed; i.e. to clean 

 the surface, and cover it with a mixture of half-rotten manure and 

 loam. The sooner they get a good rain after this operation the better. 



And now to the practice of disbudding. Our amateur friends have 

 been promised some information on this point ; but all we can do is 

 to describe our practice. But it will be said, " Look at the strength 

 of your plants and mine ; they cannot carry the same number of 

 blooms as yours." We are happy in stating that we know several 

 amateurs possessing plants equal in strength to our own; and after 

 the favourable season we have experienced, it is for want of atten- 

 tion that all are not in the same condition. 



As a general rule, we allow only one leading shoot to start from 

 a plant ; but there are exceptions : strong growers, with large flowers, 

 may at times have more with advantage. The majority of our pots 

 contain four plants this season ; but where there are three only, with 

 one leader to a plant, which is to carry two blooms, we then have six 

 fine flowers to a pot. If a strong grower and three buds are left, or 

 where four plants are grown together, why then we get a still better 

 display by having eight blooms. But quality here has never been 

 sacrificed at the price of quantity ; we never leave more than two 

 blooms to a main shoot, the second bud is left in the usual manner at 

 about the third or fourth joint ; we take care that what are to be 

 removed are nipped oflp as soon as the young buds can be got hold 

 of, in order to strengthen the main stem. Of such varieties as Pux- 

 ley's Prince Albert, or others that have a very large pod, and are 

 early, we remove the centre bud, and leave two side buds. It is the 

 practice in the north and midland counties to allow each plant to 

 carry more blooms than is done in the south. Our plan is very sim- 

 ple : in the case of small flowers, or a weakly plant, we leave one 

 bloom only ; all others have two to a plant. Such as we usually bud 

 to one bloom to a plant are as follows : Carnations — Admiral Cur- 

 zon, Captain Edwards, Duke of Devonshire, Knowsthorpe Pet, Lamar- 

 tine, Omnium Primus, Splendid, True Briton, Black Diamond, Lord 

 Milton, Nulli Secundus, Paul Pry, Thomas Hewlett, Victory, Earl 

 Spencer, John Wright, Perfection, Africana, Bishop of Gloucester, 

 Cradley Pet, Firebrand, Lady Gardener. Picotees — General Bern, 

 Giulio Romano, King James, Mr. Trahar, Ernestine, Fanny, Lorina, 

 Nymph, Viola Surprise, Alice. 



We have found the following to carry two blooms with advantage : 

 Carnations — Armada, Athelstan, Brutus, Bardolph, Bolingbroke, Fal- 

 staflf. Hotspur, Lord Lewisham, Lord Rancliffe, Lionel, Malcolm, 

 Prince Albert (Puxley), Prince Albert (Hale), Themis, Count Pauhne, 

 Duke of Bedford, Duncan, Georgiana Horsa, Jenny Lind, Monarch, 

 Owen Glendower, Queen Victoria (Puxley), Queen of Trumps, 

 Rainbow (Hastings), Rainbow (Cartwright), Sir J. Reynolds, South 

 London, Vivid, William IV., Falconbridge, Henry Kirke White, 

 Lady of the Lake, Princess Royal, Prince Albert (Puxley), Sarah 

 Payne, Twyford, Perfection Beauty of Woodhouse, Great Northern, 

 Lord Byron, President, Poins, Queen of Purples, Rubens, Squire 



