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CULTUEE OF CAMPANrLA PYEAMIDALIS. 



In response to the request made in 

 the last issue of the Flohal World, 

 I now send you my mode of treatment 

 of Campanula pyramidalis, one of our 

 noblest greenhouse ornaments, but 

 which is so rarely seen as to be quite 

 a novelty, old-fashioned flower though 

 it be. A pair of campanulas, a blue 

 and a white, upon an exhibition table 

 indeed, if well grown, would create a 

 sensation ; and as decoration for a 

 hall or staircase, or drawing-room, 

 are equally magnificent and rare ; 

 yet nothing is more simple than the 

 ■whole routine of their culture ; they 

 are, indeed, all but hardy ; they will 

 live out of doors in this North of 

 England, but they scarcely make such 

 beautiful pyramids as those wintered 

 indoors, owing to their throwing up 

 too many stems. The objection to 

 their more extensive cultivation seems 

 to be an idea that such fine flowers 

 are diiEcult to treat, and the fact of 

 their requiring three years' nursing 

 before flowering ; but who that has 

 trained a pyramid fuchsia, or raised 

 seedling bulbs or shrubs,would shrink 

 from this ? Let it be known that there 

 is no flower that is more certainly 

 and easily cultivated with ordinary 

 care and appliances ; and these noble 

 pyramids (seven or eight feet in 

 height, and clothed from top to 

 bottom with flowers) may as often be 

 seen as pyramid fuchsias, and giving 

 variety to the conservatory at a sea- 

 son when fuchsia hues often pre- 

 dominate too largely. Procure a 

 sixpenny packet each of blue and of 

 white Campanula pyramidalis seed, 

 sow in hotbed in March, and you may 

 have a hundred plants, or, if these are 

 too many, sow half of each, and, if 

 good, the remaining seed will vege- 

 tate a year later. Prick off the young 

 plants into large seed pans, and their 

 rapid growth will compel you to re- 

 pot them, and in this, and in liberal 

 treatment for three years, is all the 

 secret there is, only let the treat- 

 ment he liberal. Pot when they show 

 that they require it ; drain the pots 

 thoroughly, and, with this one pre- 

 caution, you need not stint them of 



anything solid or liquid which you 

 can conceive of richest and most 

 nutritious. Good fat loam and old 

 hotbed manure, equal parts, with a 

 little sand, is not too good for their 

 last potting before flowering, but in 

 their younger state less manure wUl 

 suflice, and its place be filled up by 

 leaf-mould or peat. However, they 

 are so accommodating as to do well 

 in any soil that is not absolutely poor 

 or stiff. In their growing seasons, 

 and while flowering, or preparing to 

 flower, stand the pots in pans of 

 water. Three or four pottings may 

 be required in a year, and they may 

 stand out of doors all the summer, 

 till they are running up their flower 

 stem ; then they may be taken in, 

 but not placed in a window, or one- 

 sided light, as, if carried straight, 

 they require no sticks or supports ; 

 under a glass roof, or out of doors, 

 the stem shoots up as straight as an, 

 arrow. They continue for three 

 months or more in great beauty, but 

 decaying flowers must be neatly cut 

 out once a week. I had three plants 

 come into flower about the middle of 

 July, and they are still very beautiful 

 in this middle of October, and for 

 several weeks I cut off each plant more 

 than a hundred decaying flowers. Two 

 others I had which became infested 

 with thrips, and these I have now 

 destroyed, as they were losing their 

 beauty. I always throw away plants 

 that have done flowering, as, though 

 they will shoot after being cut quite 

 down, they never make beautiful 

 plants. I keep up a succession of 

 plants, and don't require to make use 

 of them for second flowering, though 

 I see friends to whom I have given 

 plants do this, but the grace of the 

 pyramid is not there, though they 

 give a profusion of flowers. 



When I have more plants than 

 I require for indoor decoration, and 

 for giving to friends, I use them as 

 centres to pincushion beds, taking 

 care to plant only such low-growing 

 bedders around them as will not hide 

 their beautiful pyramidal proportions. 

 These make very handsome and 



