206 THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



high and dry. Such a slope I would improve by extra drains to 

 carry water away quick to a lower level, and then I would manure 

 liberally before planting. I would never protect the plants with 

 canvas or screens of any kind, unless I wanted to cut flowers for 

 show, in which case I would shade the flowers selected in just the 

 same way as we shade dahlia blossoms. 



MouTANs lu Pots. — -In pot culture a few rules must be strictly 

 observed. Pirst pot firm, with good drainage and a fat soil. I 

 always ram the soil into the pots with a rammer, which at the 

 present moment happens to be the knob end of a broken kitchen 

 poker ; tlie rammer in use before that turned up was a short stout 

 piece of the stem of a box-tree, one end of which had been charred 

 till it was round as a ball and as black as soot. My plants remain 

 two years in the same pots without a shift, and they do better than 

 with annual shifting, for in the second year they always flower more 

 freely than the first, which I attribute to the more perfect ripening 

 of the wood. But in the second year we help them with surface 

 manure from the time they begin to grow freely, and we find nothing 

 so good now as Standen's manure laid on the surface of the soil two 

 or three times in the season. If this is not used, a good top dressing 

 of sheep's dung answers admirably, and to be repeated once or twice 

 while they are growing. 



It is of the utmost importance that they never taste fire heat. I 

 do not say they cannot be forced, because there are cultivators who 

 can force anything from ginger to a cedar-tree ; but I do say, that if 

 they are pushed into growth by the aid of artificial heat in spring, 

 the flowers are likely to fall in the bud ; and if they are kept where 

 there is fire heat in winter, they will begin to grow prematurely, 

 and come to grief. My trees remain out of doors all winter in a 

 sheltered place, packed to the top edges of the pots in coal ashes or 

 tan. If the weather is severe we scatter dry hay amongst them, but 

 I have never yet seen a moutan injured by frost. As soon as they 

 begin to grow in spring they are all removed to a breezy Paxtoniau 

 house, and are placed on both sides at intervals in front of the 

 ventilators. The advantage of this is to protect the young growth 

 from the destructive spring frosts which are so common on the 

 north side of London, while at the same time the plants have as 

 much air and light as if they were out of doors. Prom this time 

 they are freely watered, and their growth is rapid. Prom the un- 

 promising old wood shoots of a foot to eighteen inches in length 

 rise in profusion, each bearing a huge flower at its summit. "When 

 the flowers are about half expanded they may be plunged in beds 

 out of doors, and make a splendid display where the plunging 

 system is followed. But I must confess that this season, for the 

 first time, my tree preonies were very much injured by being put out, 

 for we had miserable weather at the time, damp all day and frost at 

 night ; and though they looked beautiful for a time, they refused to 

 open their latest buds, which in the end melted to a pulp and fell 

 ingloriously. 



PiiuNiNa is a very simple aflfair. It will be obseiwed that the 

 flowering shoots spring from the ripest wood, and in fact you may 



