360 THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



as advised above for starting the old plants, and if the house is not 

 kept rather close, it will be necessary to place the cutting-pots 

 under a hand-light, with the top lifted at all times to admit a little 

 air. It is a very common practice to cover the cutting-pots with 

 bell-glasses, but its adoption is decidedly injurious, and thousands 

 of cuttings are lost annually from this cause alone. "Watering is 

 very important : you must only give sufficient to L keep the sand 

 and soil moderately moist. 



The cuttings must not remain in the cutting-pot a day after they 

 are rooted ; therefore, as soon as they have a few healthy young roots, 

 pot off singly into small 60's. Here it will be necessary to pause 

 and say a few words about the manner of potting, and the most 

 suitable compost. This, however, can be dismissed with few words. 

 The soil must consist of good fibry peat, broken up rather roughly, 

 and mixed with about a fourth part of sand. The pots must be 

 clean, and have an inch of rather small crocks placed carefully in 

 the bottom for drainage. In potting ram the soil in as firm as pos- 

 sible, and in shifting into larger pots, see that the soil is filled in 

 regularly, to prevent the possibility of the water running down on 

 one side, and thus preventing the ball of soil being wetted equally 

 all through. 



As they are potted off, place in a cold frame, and keep rather 

 close for a fortnight, and then increase the ventilation gradually, and 

 in about a month after potting remove the lights altogether, or 

 stand the plants on a bed of coal-ashes outside, where they will have 

 free exposure to the sun and air. The only attention necessary 

 during the stay in the open air will be to keep them properly 

 supplied with water, and to stop the young shoots once or twice, as 

 may be necessary to lay the foundation of a bushy specimen. In 

 September remove to the greenhouse, keep close to the glass, and 

 expose them to no more artificial heat than is really necessary to 

 exclude the frost, or keep the atmosphere dry and sweet. The 

 only enemy likely to attack them at this stage is mildew, which can 

 easily be destroyed by dusting the foliage with sulphur before it 

 gets a too firm hold. 



In April shift into five or six-inch pots, and, after a month or six 

 weeks' probation in a cold frame, remove to the open air. No 

 stopping must be practised, unless it be in very exceptional cases. 

 When plants have the growing points of the shoots nipped out once 

 or twice during the second year's growth, they grow so dumpy that 

 it is impossible to see the flowers to advantage. Whereas, when no 

 stoppage is practised, a plant in a six-inch pot will produce from 

 twenty to thirty strong shoots eighteen inches in height, each of 

 which will form perfect pyramids of bloom at the proper season. 

 One reason why some people fail in flowering them satisfactorily is 

 simply because the first growth is stopped, and the second, for want 

 of time, is insufficiently matured. Another cause arises through 

 shading the plants during the summer ; whereas, they ought to be 

 fully exposed to the sun ft all times. 



Eeturn the stock to the greenhouse again in September, when 

 the earliest kinds will soon begin to flower. In the March following 



