232 THE FLOEAL WOELD AND GAEDEN GUIDE. 



them so that they stand well in respect to relative heights, and as a 

 rule pentsteraons should be in front and phloxes in the rear, for the 

 latter usually grow the tallest. But if they were mixed indis- 

 criminately the first season, it would not matter much ; the effect 

 would be charming, even if irregular, and when they were in bloom 

 the cultivator could mark them all as to heights, colours, habits, etc., 

 etc., in order to replant them tlie next season, and then arrange 

 them perfectly, I think it much better to put the case this way 

 than to give a list as long as from here to the resumption of business 

 by the broken banks, because with the best lists and heights most 

 carefully noted, no one would be able to make a plantation in perfect 

 order at the first start. As to general management, my advice is, 

 let the ground be well prepared by deep digging and liberal manuring, 

 and after planting, do nothing more than put sticks to prevent 

 damage by storms. They may sometimes appear to want water, but 

 in good ground they do better in the end without it than with it, 

 and think of the dreadful labour that is saved thereby. To be sure, 

 if the grower wants the amusement of watering, these plants will 

 never object to it ; but mind, if you once begin you must go on ; for 

 watering brings the roots of plants to the surface, and if the 

 watering is neglected, those roots get burned, etc., etc. 



I hope I shall be understood to desire that these plants should be 

 well grown, because I am going to recommend a very easy way of 

 growing them. If your climate is mild, and the soil well drained, all 

 the phloxes will live through the winter, and if left alone several 

 years, make great freely-flowering bushes. But the named varieties 

 of pentstemons Avill not do this. The plan I follow is to take them 

 up in the early part of October, and winter them in a frame, and in 

 April plant them out again. This plan promotes the formation of 

 huge specimens, and my idea is that in such a form we have the 

 beauties of the plants more completely developed than in any other. 

 There can be nothing more simple or effectual, the stools increase in 

 magnitude every year, and if at any time it is desirable to divide 

 them, it may be done in spring by simply chopping them in halves 

 with a spade. 



But this plan will not suit all our readers. Those who want the 

 most perfect flowers possible, and are less particular about effect in 

 the decoration of the garden, must propagate every year, and grow 

 only young plants, always destroying the old stools as soon as they 

 have served their purpose. This leads us, then, to consider the 

 subject of 



PEOPAGATINd PHLOXES AKD PENTSTEMONS. 



The only satisfactory way is to take cuttings, and get them 

 rooted with as little aid from heat as possible. They may be mul- 

 tiplied in autumn and spring. The usual practice is to propagate 

 pentstemons in autumn and phloxes in spring, but these last may be 

 done in autumn with the others, if young shoots can be got from the 

 base. If the season is a dry one, however, very few can be obtained, 

 but in spring phloxes throw up shoots from the root freely, and if these 

 are taken off when a few inches long, and potted round the sides of 



