234 THE GARDENER. [May 



GESNERA CULTURE. 



If there is any one branch of his business that the gardener ought to 

 pay more attention to than another, I think it should be the decor- 

 ation of the various structures under his care during the dreary and 

 dull months of gloomy winter ; for this purpose, to those who have a 

 store, I know nothing better adapted than the Gesnera. With the 

 beautiful qualities of a foliage plant, it possesses also deservedly 

 the character of a free bloomer. There is thus a twofold reason 

 why it claims our attention ; and well-grown plants, either large or 

 small, will abundantly repay any attention they require at our hands 

 to make them so. One of ray late worthy employers, who, by the way, 

 was passionately in love with especially such flowers as had real 

 worth to recommend them, who was also a good bit of an artist, 

 declared, after viewing it from all its view-points, admiring and 

 readmiring its charms, " that Gesnera refulgens is the handsomest 

 thing I ever saw." 



I do not by any means suppose that in my mode of culture there 



is anything particular or peculiar, but as I am under the impression 



that a good many young gardeners maybe at a loss as to how they are 



to treat those things they may have this year for the first time under 



their care, it is for their benefit that I now pen my own mode 



of treatment. After the plants have done blooming, say in February, 



they will indicate a desire to go to rest, and no time should be 



lost in allowing them to do so, consistently with their being thoroughly 



ripened, which is a most material matter for the wellbeing of the plants 



during the following season, as half -ripened roots can never start again 



with the same vigour as thoroughly ripened ones do ; and on the start 



they make much depends. Water must now be very sparingly given, 



at the same time not withholding it altogether at once, but giving it 



at long and then at longer intervals, until their tops are quite dead, 



when they may be cut down, and the pots turned over on their sides in 



a warm dry corner of the stove, where no water at all can by any 



accident reach them. There it is necessary they should remain to 



rest for at least a month or six weeks, or even longer, if they are not 



wanted very early for next year. There are some gardeners who, when 



their plants have done blooming, at once cut them over, and perhaps 



throw in below the stage or some other such place. Such treatment is 



far wrong, as the tubers are not ripe when their tops are done blooming, 



and therefore they ought to be carefully and ijrudently treated until they 



are perfectly ripe. I generally like to have an early and a late lot, and 



therefore start them at different periods, five or six weeks intervening. 



From the middle to the end of March I consider a good time for 



