21 

 THE CAPE JESSAMINE (GARDENIA). 



BT^J. BA3TSLEY TANTOtf, E.E.H.S., EPSOM NUESEEIES. 



[HERE is no plant indigenous to the Cape peninsula 

 more worthy of cultivation than this. The beautiful 

 white and deliciously-scented flowers, seated upon the 

 apex of shoots which are clothed with dark shiny 

 cordate-lanceolate foliage, render it one of the most 

 charming objects of the floral kingdom. An inflorescence of this 

 plant captivates and is universally held in high esteem by the fair 

 sex, and yet how seldom do we final it receiving at the hands of 

 growers that care and attention it deserves. 



In the successful management, two great points should be care- 

 fully attended to in order to insure success ; viz., the growing and 

 resting seasons, which should be as distinctly marked as is possible 

 to effect artificially. Taking the physical nature of the country from 

 whence this beautiful family comes as a guide, in this favoured clime 

 the summer or growing season is marked with great heat and 

 humidity, which excite the growth iuto great luxuriance, and this 

 state is followed by a cooler temperature and very dry atmosphere. 

 It is at this season that the plant receives that check which pre- 

 disposes the growth to be arrested, and all wood-buds to be trans- 

 muted to flowers, the expansion of which commences immediately 

 the summer season recommences. Thus the outlines of the habits 

 of this plant in its native wilds will at once suggest to the amateur 

 the course of treatment to pursue in order to enjoy this, one of Na- 

 ture's sweetest gems. 



I have always found this plant to succeed best in a common 

 hotbed of good stable dung, made up about the beginning of 

 February ; and when the heat is sweetened, the pots should be 

 plunged up to their rims, securing a bottom-heat of about 75°, 

 and the atmospheric about 60\ Previous to plunging, the 

 plants should be partially shaken out and repotted into an admix- 

 ture of peat, loam, and silver-sand, taking care to drain the pots well 

 with small pounded potsherds. The plants at this stage must be 

 carefully watered, but should be syringed twice a day with water 

 heated to about 8-5°, being careful to saturate the whole of the 

 woodwork of the inside of the frame ; this generates that great 

 humidity in which these plants revel ; in fact, to grow the Gardenia 

 well, excessive humidity, with a steady heat, is the great and chief 

 agent ; it appears to imbibe, through the stomates of its leaves and 

 bark, almost sufficient moisture to sustain it during growth. As 

 the season advances, air should be given sparingly, until the latter 

 end of March, when, should the weather be open and warm, air 

 should be increased, but the frames closed early after midday. At 

 this period the growth will have become completed, and the flower- 

 buds formed, when the plants can be lifted out into a warm stove, 

 there to expand their chaste flowers. At this time humidity must 

 be decreased, or the purity of the flowers will be much deteriorated. 



