THE FLOEAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE, 117 



as Betteridge's Aster — Mr. Betteridge having been very successful 

 in exhibiting thetn the lf),st few years, and produced them in splendid 

 condition. If you purchase what are called by the German growers 

 quilled asters, you will be grievously disappointed, as what they call 

 quilled is a mongrel variety, and, plainly speaking, not worth the 

 paper the seed occupies. 



There are lots of other varieties, I see, in the list, such as Giant 

 Emperor, a great coarse kind ; Cocardeau or Crown, two colours in 

 each flower ; and also a New Victoria, P?eony Perfection, Globe 

 Pyramidal, and many more ; but the three varieties already named 

 are all that any one can wish for. 



CULTIVATION OF STOCKS ANB ASTEKS. 



I have been very successful in cultivating both stocks and asters. 

 My time of sowing has usually been the second or third week in 

 April, sowing each variety in a separate pot, and placing in a cold 

 frame until ready to prick out in the open ground — the soil used 

 being loam and sand. I find any manure added, especially to the 

 soil stocks are sown in, causes them to damp oft' in the seed-pot. 



As soon as ready to prick out, I plant them at once where they 

 are to flower, allowing twelve inches from plant to plant, and fifteen 

 inches from row to row, choosing a dry day for the planting out, 

 and as a row is finished, slightly watering, and covering each plant 

 with a thumb-pot to shade from the sun, taking the pot off at night, 

 and covering during the day for three or four days, unless a sbowery 

 day comes on, then the pots are left off" altogether. The ground is 

 well prepared by being trenched two feet deep, and then a good 

 supply of well-rotted manure dug in and left exposed to the March 

 winds, and levelled and raked down just previous to planting out. 

 When well established, and just showing their flower buds, copious 

 supplies of weak manure water should be given twice a week ; a fine 

 display of blooms will then be attained. "When growing asters for 

 exhibition, I have always found shallow trenches the best ; manure, 

 etc., being placed for them to grow in, exactly as you would celery. 



W. H. 



NEW MODE OF GROWING CINERARIAS. 



Between the 1st and 5th of April sow some good cineraria seed ia pans, and 

 place in a heat of 70'. In ten days the plants will appear. By the end of the 

 month they will be large enough to be potted singly, in 60-size pots. The soil 

 should be equal parts leaf-mould (or turfy loam) and peat, with silver sand added. 

 Water with a tine rose on the pot, and place on bottom-heat for four days. Next 

 place them in a cold frame, or greenhouse, and keep close four days, after which 

 time give air and keep them in the full light till the second week in June. Then 

 prepare a border facing north, and sheltered with wall or fence, by laying on the 

 surface four inches of a mixture consisting of equal parts turfy loam, leaf-mould, 

 and coarse sand, or siliceous road drift. Dig the border nine inches deep to mix 

 -this stuff with it, tr^rn out the plants, fifieen inches apart every way, and plant them 

 firm. "Water is needful. In the last week of September take them up with care, 

 pot them, put them in a cold frame, and keep shaded for a fortnight. Then give 

 them a good position in the greenhouse, the temperature to be 55' to 00"' when the 

 -eun shines, 45' at night, and in frosty weather never lower than 40' at night. By 

 •this treatment you will have plants with great heads blooming from the Ist of No- 

 vember to the 1st of February. S. H. 



