THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 243 



the compost prepared in the manner here described, very little 

 manure-water will be required, and, in unskilful hands, its use had 

 better be dispensed with. When the flowers begin to fade, the plants 

 should be removed back to the cold frame, and have the lights drawn 

 over them in wet or frosty weather. Allow them to remain there until 

 the growth is completed, and then the water supply must be lessened in 

 a gradual manner, and finally withheld. As the foliage dies away, place 

 the pots on their sides in Mich a manner as will prevent any water 

 reaching the soil. Frequently cultivators stand the pots out of 

 doors without attention until they are repotted, and the bulbs, for 

 lack of a sufficient supply of moisture before they have finished the 

 season's growth, are dried up, and, as a matter of course, do not 

 attain their full size. Or, on the other baud, in a rainy seasorj, 

 they continue growing too long, and are, therefore, unable to become 

 thoroughly matured before the time arrives for starting them a^ain. 

 Hence the cause of the failures we hear of occasionally. The pots 

 with the bulbs at rest can be stacked upon their sides, either indoors 

 or out. In the latter case, they should have the advantage of a 

 shady position, for it is by no means advisable to expose the bulbs 

 to the scorching influence of a summer's sun. The young offsets 

 can be planted thickly in the same sized pots, and they will make 

 strong flowering bulbs for the following spring. 



There is yet another way in which these plants can he turned 

 to account for indoor decoration. Instead of putting the bulbs in 

 pots in the manner advised in the foregoing remarks, take a wire 

 basket of medium size, and place a layer of moss entirely over the 

 wirework, to keep the soil in its proper place. Put a layer of soil 

 over the bottom of the basket, about an inch in thickness, and at a 

 distance of three inches apart, insert the bulbs in the soil, with the 

 crown or growing point downwards ; then proceed to fill the basket 

 with soil, and as each three-inch layer of soil is added, put a row of 

 bulbs entirely round the basket at a distance of about two anif a-half 

 inches from each oth a r, with the crown facing towards the wire- 

 work. When the basket is filled, plant the surface in the ordim-uy 

 manner. Keep the basket in the frame with the soil just moist until 

 the young growth begins to peep through the wire-work, and then 

 suspend it in the greenhouse, and wafer more liberally. In a short 

 time the whole basket will be enveloped in a mass of foliage, and the 

 effect when the plants are in bloom will be indescribably beautiful. 

 A basket of Lachenalias, grown as here advised, was exhibited at 

 one of the spring meetings of the Koyal Horticultural Society at 

 South Kensington, and it was, as it well deserved, much admired 

 and excited a considerable amount of interest, as few indeed were 

 those who saw it who were aware of the adaptability of these plants 

 for cultivation in suspended baskets. 



The best way to grow them for outdoors is to pofc them in much 

 the same way as advised above, and then grow them in the cold 

 frame, with plenty of air to keep the foliage and flower-stems dwarf 

 so that they will be able to resist all weathers when turned out. 

 The simplest way of displaying them in the open air is to plunge 

 the pots in the beds or borders just before the flowers are fully 



