25-1 THE FLOEIST AND POMOLOGIST. [ NOVKMier, 



MYOSOTIS DISSITIFLORA. 



'Y object is to commend tliis beautiful spring-blooming Forget-me-noi, as 

 being particularly well adapted for flowering in pots in February or March 

 cl^^ in a greenhouse. For this purpose I do not recommend the use of 

 f^S seedlings, but the divided portions of the plants that have bloomed the 

 previous spring, because the growth is so much the more compact, and also 

 because the blossoms will be produced earlier in the season. I grow some of it 

 every year, and as it is only under most favourable circumstances that the old 

 plants of this Forget-me-not will live over the winter in the open air, there is 

 no valid reason why the plants should not be employed for pot-culture. My first 

 batch, made of the side-shoots picked off from the plants, are quite strong, the 

 3-in. pots being filled with roots. The largest plants will be shifted into 5-in. 

 pots ; the smaller will flower in the 3-in. pots in which they are now growing. 

 I hope to have some of them in flower soon after Christmas, and that is just the 

 time when blue flowers are most acceptable. And such a hue of blue too 1 It is 

 a radiantly beautiful blue, and there are such dense masses of colour to show off 

 the surprising loveliness of its charms. In a light, fairly rich soil, this Forget-me- 

 not grows well, and it only requires protection from frost. 



Sometimes the plants show the accumulation of green-fly, just as our 

 Pelargoniums, Calceolarias, Cinerarias, &c., will at this season of the year. I 

 cannot smoke my conservatory, because it opens into the sitting-room, and the 

 strong smell of the fumigating material gets through into the room, and pervades 

 the house ; but I keep down green-fly by the use of Frettingham's Liquid Compound, 

 distributed in the form of a fine spray by means of a very simple apparatus sent 

 out with the preparation ; or by an application of Fowler's Gardener's Insecticide, 

 both of which are real boons to the amateur horticulturist, and accomplish their 

 work effectually. — E. Dean, Ealing. 



ON RAISING THE CROCUS FROM SEEDS. 

 GAEDENEE remarked to me a short time ago, of these beautiful little 

 harbingers of spring, that " they were grovelling too near the dirt for his 

 notice." They have not been so to me, and for some years I have taken 

 an especial interest in their cultivation, and found much pleasure in 

 raising them from seed, the results each year proving more gratifying than in 

 the preceding. I flatter myself that I have now one of the choicest collections 

 of this lovely little gem in England, having over one hundred varieties, and 

 another batch ready to bloom next season. Amongst them are many improved 

 kinds, with shorter cups than in the old varieties. Then, the markings of some 

 are of remarkable artistic beauty ; while others are very delicately lined with 

 hair-strokes, some are pure whites, some are very fine blues, and some arc 

 lavenders, tho latter colour being also in some oases tipped with white. In fact 

 I cannot attempt to describe the variations of colour. 



