296 THE FLOEAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



Tuberoses as "Winter. Flowers have been the subject of an 

 interesting experiment at Stoke Newington this season. I was led 

 to this through the frequent reception of complaints from readers 

 of the Floral World, that the bulbs did not flower in spite of 

 every care. I obtained from Messrs. Barr and Sugden fair samples 

 of ail the tuberoses in the market, the cheapest, the dearest, and 

 those midway between cheap and dear. I may as well dismiss one 

 point by saying that the cheap bulbs were utterly worthless, there 

 were no flowers in them, so of course none could come out. Weil, 

 these bulbs were sorted into several lots. Some were started in 

 gentle bottom-heat in January, and flowered beautifully in", June ; 

 the large bulbs, measuring nearly two inches across, producing fine 

 flowers, those an inch and a half produced flowers less fine, and a 

 few failed to flower, the smaller bulbs produced leaves only. To 

 buy such bulbs is to throw money away. So far good ; we learnt 

 definitely the cause of the failure fo often complained of by our 

 readers, but that was not sufficient. I reflected that tuberoses would 

 be valuable from October to Christmas, or later, whereas in June 

 there are so many flowers that we are not much in need of them. 

 So I kept back a large lot of each of the several sizes, and had 

 them potted the first week in April in a mixture consisting of equal 

 parts peat, loam, and leaf soil, with a half part of silver sand added. 

 The soil was nearly dry, and no water was given. The pots were 

 all placed on the path of a Paxtonian house, and they had a little 

 water during the six weeks they remained there, but enough only to 

 moderately moisten the soil ; generally speaking, they were nearly 

 dust dry during the six weeks they remained there. Then they began 

 to show little green points at the crown of each bulb, which was 

 a proof they were growing. I then placed them high up on a shelf 

 to benefit by the heat of the sun acting on the pots, and gave water 

 twice a week. By the middle of June they were growing freely ; 

 they were then removed from the shelf and stood on inverted pots 

 on the bed of the house full in the sun, and had plenty of water. 

 By the middle of August the flower-spikes of all the large bulbs 

 were pushing freely, and on this iHth of September, the day on 

 which these notes are written, many of them are showing the white 

 of their flowers, the spikes being three feet high, others are about 

 half grown. The next point of importance will be to prevent them 

 being injured by cold, for a certain degree of warmth is necessary to 

 induce the flowers to open. I shall now put a few at a time into a 

 warm house to expand the flowers nicely, and if the weather should 

 become too cold for those still advancing, the Paxtonian house must 

 have the benefit of a little warmth from the hot-water pipes. Thus 

 it is proved that they may be flowered in autumn without bottom- 

 heat, and that the only way to bo sure of bloom is to obtain the 

 largest bulbs. The small bulbs commonly sold at three shillings a 

 dozen are absolutely worthless ; double or treble that price must 

 be paid to ensure a fine bloom. Since these experiments I have 

 referred to several essays on tuberose culture, and I am bound to 

 say that, with very few exceptions, what books say on the subject is 

 sheer nonsense. 



