132 THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



The varieties whicli I have found best are Queen, Eeidii, 

 Compactum, and Commander. The last-named is not so strong a 

 grower as any of the others named, but as we want plants of various 

 heights, it comes in well for the outside row. The finest of these 

 for growth and bloom is Compactum, as it will make long rods, and 

 produces plenty of large trusses. It is, however, not so bright a 

 scarlet as Queen, which is truly superb in style of leaf and floweT, 

 and a tremendous grower, too. Eeidii is rather wiry in habit, when 

 grown tall, but it is thoroughly good, the leaf darkly zoned, the 

 flowers bright scarlet, with clear white eye. Suppose a dozen 

 plants of each of these to be planted out now. They would number 

 in all forty-eight, which would suffice for a pyramid fifteen feet in 

 diameter, and of any height to which the plants could be got — a 

 matter dependent, of course, upon their age. They should be 

 allowed to grow as they please, except that a little thinning nf the 

 growth might be desirable, and some stakes would really be needed 

 to prevent breakage by wind. The Queen is most likely to want 

 thinning, because it usually begins its growth by the production of 

 a number of shoots, and soon presents a very compact appearance. 

 But, as the season advances, this, and indeed all of them, will throw 

 up some strong shoots, which is the very thing required of them. 

 They will, perhaps, attain a height of five feet before the end of 

 September. They must be taken up rather early, be potted in as 

 small pots as will hold them, without cutting their roots very 

 severely, and be at once placed in a lean-to greenhouse which has a 

 south aspect. Eight-inch pots ought to take them, but if they can 

 be got into six-inch pots, all the better. The pots must be well 

 drained, and the soil must be poor loam, with plenty of grit or 

 sifted lime-rubbish intermixed. To keep them up, it will be a good 

 plan to train them out against the back wall ; but if this^is not con- 

 venient, tie the rods loosely to tall stakes, and pass a rope along in 

 front of them, to keep them from swaying about. The object of 

 Lousing them early is to get as much as possible of the long rods 

 well ripened. Keep them cool and dry all winter. Three or four 

 degrees of frost will do them no harm, if they are dry, but frost and 

 damp will kill them. A heat sufficient to keep them growing all 

 winter will scarcely be good, though I must confess I generally cut 

 a few trusses from very large plants in the month of March, which 

 is evidence of a few degrees more heat than they ought to have. 



When May returns again, plant them out as before, either in a 

 bed or against a wall. When they are planted, thin out the shoots 

 at the bottom, and shorten all the rods to hard joints ; that is to 

 say, cut away so much of the top of all the shoots as is at all soft or 

 swelled, or marked with brown specks, those brown specks occurring 

 only on imperfectly-ripened wood. Do not aim at keeping them to 

 one height, but prune them solely with a view to keep as much as 

 possible of the hard, well-ripened wood ; some will far outstrip the 

 others in stature ; let them ; you will be glad in the end of a few 

 very tall plants to fill the inner circles of the pyramid. They will 

 again throw up fat rods from the base, and also fat shoots from the 

 old rods. The end of it will be, that probably you will have plants 



