296 THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



argument for lifting, apart altogether from the risks attendant upon 

 the coldness and humidity of our winters. When we have wrought 

 up a florist's flower to a high condition, we find that it must be well 

 fed to keep it true, and to maintain in its full extent the field for 

 further improvement. Hence the majority of our most prized 

 florist's flowers require to be perpetually propagated, replanted, 

 renewed from buds and germs and seeds. The question arises, 

 then, if it will not always do to leave them in the ground, what 

 shall we do with them ? First, then, let there be no haste to dry 

 them off, and do not completely dry the young corms at all. Lift 

 them, and pack them close in boxes or beds of earth iri sunny pits 

 or greenhouses, and keep the soil in which they are packed so 

 slightly moist that it will not soil the fingers if crumbled between 

 them. If the soil is really wet, there will be an outbreak of mildew ; 

 but a moisture sufficient to prevent untimely ripening is perfectly 

 safe and beneficial. When the leaves turn yellow, and it is obvious 

 their season of activity is over, lift them, shake off the soil, and lay 

 them in a dry, sunny place : the best possible place for them is a 

 dry, warm shelf in a greenhouse. They will soon be ripe, and you 

 will have corms of several sizes — large ones for next season's 

 flowering, and small ones that will not flower, but must be grown 

 on to flowering size. The advice to take them up in October, and 

 dry them off quickly, has had much to do with the disease that has 

 prevailed, there can be no doubt, for it often happens that the offsets 

 are then not sufficiently grown to have an independent existence, 

 and forcing them into this by hasty di'ying and separating is a 

 process of weakening which will show its results hereafter. We 

 have treated these and cannas by one and the same process with 

 the best success, by packing them pretty close in boxes with gritty 

 soil in a nearly dry state, and placing them in pits to finish their 

 career for the season. 



The best way to keep them through the winter is in sand. Long 

 exposure to the atmosphere is injurious. If kept in a warm place, 

 many of them will begin to grow prematurely, and in that case 

 must be immediately potted, and kept dry and cool, but safe from 

 frost, till April, and then should be placed in the open air, in a 

 shady place ; and when the pots are full of roots, they may be 

 planted out without so much as removing the crocks. The potting 

 process is unquestionably the best, because of the long season of 

 growth it allows of; but any kind of forcing is injurious. Those 

 who desire to have a prolonged bloom should begin to pot in 

 January, and continue with succession batches till the end of March, 

 after which the corms may be planted in the open ground with 

 safety. If potting is not convenient, keep the bulbs cool and 

 covered till the first week in April, and then plant them. That late 

 planting is not of necessity ruinous has been proved on several occa- 

 sions, for we have seen in the month of September a large batch 

 blooming in a very satisfactory manner that were not planted till 

 somewhere about the previous Midsummer Day. The usual advice 

 is to plant them three inches deep. This is not deep enough ; large 

 corms should be six inches deep, and the smallest four inches. A 



