2 THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



Culture of Roy a. — The native climate of the Hoya indicates the 

 necessity of warmth, and it is only in the stove or warm greenhouse 

 that it can ever be bloomed satisfactorily. But it is important to state 

 at the outset that what is known among gardeners as a "roasting" 

 temperature, is not only not needful, but is positively injurious. In a 

 house with caladiums, begonias, marantas, and crotons, the Hoya will 

 be at home, and there it may have the coolest end, and should certainly 

 be so placed as to enjoy plenty of sun. A rich soil is hurtful, never- 

 theless it is necessary to allow plenty of root room. The soil for Hoyas 

 should consist of a rough mixture of poor peat, silky loam, and small 

 pieces of broken brick or tde, and siftings of the size of walnuts from, 

 old mortar or plaster. Exact proportions in composts are of far less 

 consequence than usually represented ; but to prevent mistakes by 

 beginners it will be a good rule to use the ingredients in these propor- 

 tions : — loam, 2; peat, 2; broken bricks, 1 ; lime rubbish, 1. This 

 mixture ought when used to be sufficiently moist to render watering 

 unnecessary for at least a week after potting. As peat is often dust 

 dry in the potting shed, it will be well to moisten sufficient for the 

 purpose at least a day before using it. But it must be borne in mind 

 that this advice is not to be carried so far as the use of a wet compost, 

 the object being really to guard against excess of moisture, by using 

 the sod in such a state that water may be withheld for some time after 

 potting. The season for potting is early spring, and the plants should 

 be repotted every season. In performing this operation, take care not 

 to distress the plant, but proceed in the same manner as in repotting 

 camellias, cytisuses, and other plants that make firm balls of roots; 

 that is, turn the plant out carefully, and pick away as much of the old 

 soil as can be removed without damaging the roots. If the same pot is 

 used, let it be well scrubbed inside and outside, and prepare it for the 

 plant with fresh drainage carefully arranged ; over which lay some moss 

 or fibre tern from peat. In filling in, make the new soil firm about the 

 roots, and place a few rough supports about the plant to prevent any 

 strain upon the roots in moving it away from the potting-bench, as it is 

 well not to train in regularly until the plant has made a start. 



To encourage this start, place the plant on a bottom-heat of 70", 

 give it no water for a week if the soil was reasonably moist when the 

 plant was potted. At the end of a week, give a little water, and thence- 

 forward increase the supplies, but cautiously, and when the plant has 

 made a fair start, remove it from the bark bed or other source of bottom- 

 heat, and train it for flowering. 



The best plan to train a pot specimen is on a wire balloon, which is 

 a very simple operation, the shoots being taken round and round 

 regularly. A neat trellis may be extemporized, by inserting green 

 sticks round the pot, over them draw a wire ring, and tie that to the 

 sticks all round, and mid- way between the rim of the pot and the top 

 of the sticks, and finally draw the sticks together at the top, and tie 

 them securely. The plant will soon cover the trellis, and then its 

 blossoms are fully displayed. Hoya hella, coriacea, and lacunosa, being 

 of small growth, are best grown in pots, but the stronger-growing 

 species such as camosa, cinnamonifolia, and imperialis, may be grown 

 in a bri^k bed raised to the height of the stage, and their growth trained 



