246 THE FLORIST. 



ON THE CULTIVATION OF CAPE HEATHS. 

 Having procured some nice bushy plants of the sorts intended to be 

 gro\vn, which had better be done early in the spring, and having 

 prepared sufficient good fibry peat, by breaking it to pieces and mixing 

 with it a hberal quantity of silver sand, and some lumps of charcoal or 

 small pebbles, proceed to shift the plants fi'om 3 -inch to 5-inch pots, or 

 from 5-inch to 7 or 8-inch pots, and so on, as the case may be, using 

 the peat coarser for the large sizes than for the small ones, and 

 employing clean, well-drained pots. Press the mould firmly round 

 them; if the peat is light, it must be pressed till it is quite firm, or the 

 plants will probably grow very freely for a time, and then suddenly 

 die. When they are shifted, place them in a cold frame and keep them 

 rather close and shady for a few days, but do not go to extremes either 

 way. Gradually increase the air, and reduce the shading till in fine 

 days the lights are lefl off entirely. 



As the weather becomes warm leave air on all night, and in hot 

 June, July, and August days shade them in the middle of the day, and 

 leave the lights off all night. ]\Iany of them would, no doubt, bloom ; 

 but if they are slow growing kinds, and specimens are required, I would 

 prefer stopping them all over as soon as they get into good growth. 

 When they require it pass a strong band of matting or string round 

 the pot, and with some fine matting draw the shoots regularly 

 towards the edge of the pot, in order to allow the air to pass 

 freely through them. Any fine woolly growth they may make in the 

 centre had better be cut out, for it only turns yellow and unsightly if 

 allowed to remain. Some of the free flowering kinds may be allowed 

 to bloom, and all those of a straggling habit should be cut back directly 

 after, while those of more dwarf habit may merely have the extreme 

 points pinched off some of them as soon as they can be caught peeping 

 through the flowers ; others may be pinched back on the top only, to 

 allow weak side shoots to acquire strength before the leading ones break. 

 The plan of merely taking out the point as it peeps through the flowers 

 w^ill be found useful in regard to some of the late blooming kinds ; for 

 by the time the flowers fade, the plant will be found to have broken a 

 crop of buds just behind them. Some of the earliest stopped plants will 

 probably require another stopping by the middle of July, while others 

 will be found breaking fi-eely of their own accord. Those that require it 

 had better be stopped ; and as they grow, the shoots must be carefully 

 regulated by drawing them out with fine matting, and perhaps a fine 

 stick or two. Some of the fi-ee gro'v\^ng kinds may be shifted again 

 about the same time, if rapid progress is required ; but as a rule I do 

 not think it advisable to do so, for very quickly grown plants are mostly 

 short-lived. I prefer placing the plants on inverted pots or pans, and 

 in hot weather keeping the bottom of the pit moist, so as to maintain 

 a healthy atmosphere round them. If the plants are much exposed to 

 the sun the fi'ont of the pot must be shaded, and any of them that do 

 not shade the soil in the pot had better have a few pieces of crock placed 

 on its surface. 



