150 THE FLORIST. 



growth, place them where they will have plenty of air and light, but do 

 not shift them until they flower, for reasons before mentioned. I 

 prefer flowering seedlings out of doors, after all danger of frost is past, 

 as I have invariably found that the colours come brighter and more 

 distinct than when kept in the house. It is desirable, however, to choose 

 a situation where they will be somewhat shaded from the sun in the 

 hottest part of the day. 



The Fuchsia is not very particular as to soil ; any good garden 

 mould will suit the plants well enough, provided it is of a free porous 

 texture, and the pots well drained. Many of the strong growing sorts 

 are frequently destroyed by being put into large pots in a rich soil. 

 This is often the reason why serratifolia, fulgens, corymbiflora, and 

 some of these sorts are shy in flowering. I once potted two plants of 

 serratifolia, the one in rich turfy loam and dung, the other in a poor 

 worn-out soil, mixed with a few pieces of broken bricks ; the conse- 

 quence was, that the former grew most luxuriantly, and showed no 

 flowers at all till late in the fall, whereas the other made a very short 

 growth, and flowered profusely the greater part of the season. The 

 less robust varieties, do better when planted in good loam, with about 

 a third part of well decomposed manure. W. S 



RASPBERRIES. 



The Raspberry is so generally and deservedly esteemed, so easily and 

 consequently so commonly grown, that a few remarks relating to a very 

 successful treatment of culture (even though following several able 

 articles on the Raspberry which have appeared in the Florist), may 

 not be altogether unacceptable to your readers. It is an object with 

 most of us to get as much produce from a limited space of ground, 

 and with as little trouble as possible ; and when I say that I do not 

 prune or stake, or take half so much trouble with my Raspberry 

 plants as most people do, and get twice as much fruit as I ever did, by 

 the old pruning and staking practice, I advance inducements not 

 unlikely to influence a good many Raspberry growers. 



As a rule, I say do not prune, or, perhaps, to be more explict, I do 

 not remove the canes which a vigorous plant produces during the 

 summer, and from which (in the case of the common Raspberry) the 

 crop is produced the next season. My plants produce from 10 to 15 

 shoots annually, as no derangement in the relation between root and 

 shoot is allowed to exist from injudicious pruning, I get annually 

 short, fruitful, well-matured canes, instead of strong, succulent, 

 straggling shoots that require stakes to sustain them. All these 10 or 

 15 canes are suffered to remain, and each cane is fruitful almost to the 

 ground. 



It may be asked, will not this excessive fruitfulness impair the vigour 

 of the stock? I can only say, that I have pursued this system of 

 management for the last four years, with increasing success ; and what 

 especially induces me to recommend the plan is the former failure of 

 the Raspberry crop on the same ground under the pruning system. 



