270 THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



SCHIZANTHUS CULTI7EE FOR CONSERVATORY 

 DECORATION. 



BY A KENTISH GABDENEE. 



|EW of our half-hardy annuals are so well adapted for 

 pot cultivation as these useful plants. Whether they 

 are not generally known, or whether cultivators have 

 found something else to suib their taste better, it 

 matters not ; but certain it is they are not so exten- 

 sively grown as they deserve to be, for their management is so 

 simple that any one with a cool and light airy greenhouse can grow 

 them ; indeed, it is in this position they succeed the best. 



The varieties known as 8. jnnnatus, 8. pinnatus Prestii, 8. 

 Hooker ii, and 8. Grahami, are all erect-growing kinds, and when 

 well done will attain the height of three or four feet. Sow the seed 

 on a warm border out of doors the first week in September. Sow 

 very thinly, and be careful to secure a proper amount of moisture 

 in the soil, so that the seed may soon vegetate ; for if this is 

 not attended to, the seed becomes parched by the action of a bright 

 sun or a long-continued drought. When well up, they should be 

 thinned out to twelve inches apart, to secure sturdy, compact- 

 growing plants. If kept free from weeds after this, they will take 

 care of themselves till the first week in October, at which time they 

 should be taken up with a trowel, and potted in well-drained six- 

 inch pots. The soil should be light, with a liberal sprinkling of 

 sand ; but in potting, the greatest care is required with their roots, 

 or they will be injured, for they are many in number, but very 

 slight and tender. Half-a-dozen plants of each sort will be enough 

 for small gardens ; but it is best to take enough, in case one or 

 two should be lost during the winter. When all are potted, stand 

 them in a cold pit or frame for a few days, or on a shady shelf in the 

 greenhouse ; but when well established in their pots, remove them 

 at once to a light airy shelf in a cool greenhouse, putting them 

 as near the glass as possible. In this position they will want but a 

 moderate supply of water during winter, for the object is to keep them 

 as much at rest as is consistent with safety. Imperfect drainage 

 is fatal to them during November and two following months, so that 

 they must be carefully examined if symptoms of ill-health are 

 perceptible, for when the soil becomes water-logged, they damp off 

 at the collar, and of course never recover. 



As the days lengthen in the spring, and the sun's power in- 

 creases, they will begin to make a fresh growth, which should 

 be encouraged if the end cf February is near at hand, by shifting 

 them at once into their blooming pots. For an ordinary greenhouse, 

 an eight-inch pot will suffice ; for a conservatory of any pretensions, 

 a ten-inch pot may be used with advantage. This shift to the bloom- 

 ing pots is recommended, because I have found that to remove 

 them successively from one sized pot to the other, their roots are so 



