84 TIIK FLORIST, 



ALLAMANDA CATIIARTICA. 



This bcinj^ one of our most beautiful autumn-flowering stove-plants, 

 and as I have been very successful in its cultivation, perhaps a short 

 account of my mode of treating it may not prove uninteresting. 



I will begin with a young plant in a 5-inch pot, bought in now 

 from the nursery. Such a plant, if in good health, will in general 

 be found to be what is termed "pot-bound." The first operation, 

 therefore, under such circumstances, will be to turn it out of the 

 pot, remove the crocks, and carefully to disentangle the roots. If 

 the latter are healthy, give rather a liberal shift, — say into an 8-inch 

 pot, using a mixture of one-half good fibry loam, one-quarter peat 

 and one-quarter leaf-mould, with a little sharp sand. Experience 

 has proved that a soil of this kind, well mixed, and chopped up with 

 the spade (not sifted), on an efficient drainage, suits it perfectly ; but 

 if peat cannot be had, then three-quarters loam and one- quarter 

 leaf-mould and sand will answer. In both cases, place a layer of 

 some of the most fibry and rough soil over the drainage, with a view 

 to make the latter act perfectly and permanently. 



After potting, give a thorough watering, to settle the soil about 

 the roots, and place it in a smart bottom-heat in a moist stove. 

 When it shews symptoms of breaking, if the plant is weak or 

 " drawn," cut it down to a prominent bud on the ripe wood, or 

 in the case of a stronger plant, bend it down, in order the better to 

 equalise the flow of the sap, and cause the buds at the bases of the 

 shoots to start simultaneously with those at their tops. Judicious 

 watering and occasional tying will now be all that it will want, 

 until it has filled the pot with roots, and requires a shift, which will 

 probably be some time in June ; for it must be remembered, that it 

 should not be allowed to blossom the first year. The point to be 

 kept in view is, to have a good strong plant furnished in autumn 

 with well-ripened wood, from which abundance of yellow aromatic 

 flowers may be expected the following season. 



About the beginning or middle of June, if all has gone on well, 

 it will be found to have filled its pot with fine healthy roots, and 

 should be shifted into an 11 -inch pot, using the same compost as 

 before. After shifting, continue the generous growing treatment 

 already recommended, until the end of autumn is approached, when 

 water should be gradually withheld, and all the light and air that 

 is possible given it, to ripen the wood well, an important point in 

 the culture of all plants, but more especially so in that of the Alla- 

 manda. Keep it ail-but dry during the gloomy months of early 

 winter, and about the middle of February start it into growth. Prune 

 the unripe tops off the old wood ; and if a large and fine specimen 

 is desired, shift it when it begins to break, and plunge it again into 

 bottom-heat. Train the branches well out on a barrel- shaped trellis, 

 which may consist of seven or eight nice hazel-rods of sufficient 

 length, placed in the soil immediately inside the pot, fastened to a 



