228 THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



growing season, and they should never be dry in winter. When 

 I meet with pot veronicas in an amateur's garden, I generally 

 observe that they are leggy through starvation and want of manage- 

 ment as to stopping. Training they never need, as they form hand- 

 some bushes without it, but they must be systematically stopped by 

 nipping out the points of the shoots, and shortening with the knife 

 any branches that are ugly or too long. The consequences of regular 

 stopping — say three times in the season at least — will be that the 

 plants if well fed will be dense, healthy handsome bushes, and they 

 will not flower until wanted. It is simply a vexation to see these 

 plants in flower while the geraniums and lilies, and other summer 

 flowers, are at their best, for while the very gay flowers are out it is 

 impossible to see the beauty of the veronicas. But pinch out the 

 points or prune back with the knife in April ; stop again by pinching 

 the first week in June, and again the middle of July, and you will 

 have no flowers until September, and then jou will be glad of them 

 to keep the conservatory, the terrace walk, and the entrance court 

 gay until Christmas. They mix well with chrysanthemums, and are 

 invaluable for late autumn and early winter flowers, but to have them 

 in flower in summer is simply to have them at a disadvantage, and 

 find they represent a sheer waste of labour. 



To winter them a cool house or shed is quite enough. They 

 might be laid on their sides and packed in a sheltered corner, with 

 litter over the pots ; any sort of shelter m ill do that is most con- 

 venient, for they are nearly hardy, and only need to be protected 

 from the severest frosts. 



As to propagating the plant, it is so easy a task that I need say 

 but little about it. Cuttings may be struck at any season, but I 

 find I can make the best plants by taking off the young shoots in 

 the middle of May, and striking them in a cucumber frame ; they 

 then have the summer before them to make themselves, and are fine 

 plants in 48-size pots long before the growing season is over. 



Probably very few of your readers have any idea of the splendid 

 varieties of veronicas that are now in cultivation. I obtained two 

 years ago, through a London house, from Mr. Cannell, of Woolwich, 

 a set of twelve new varieties, having already many grand specimens 

 of the older sorts, such as V. Lindleyana, V. Andersoni, and the 

 variegated variety of the latter which makes a grand bedding plant. 

 I will hastily describe my recent acquisitions from notes made last 

 autumn. 



AnoLAE Heell is a fine free-growing plant, with large leaves 

 and stout wood. The flower-spikes are produced in prodigal pro- 

 fusion, the colour rich deep carmine. This would make a gorgeous 

 bed in a sheltered garden, and it is a grand pot plant. 



Madlle. Claudine Villebmoz is wrongly described in all the 

 catalogues. It is a robust habited plant with large glossy foliage. 

 The spikes are produced in great profusion ; the colour, a rich pure 

 violet — the very shade of violet employed in priestly vestments. 

 This also would make a fine bed. 



Maeie Antoinette, in growth robust, the leafage dull green ; 

 the flower is a pleasing shade of pink. 



