74 THE GARDENER. [Feb. 



carried on in the same manner for fonr or five times, each set of cuttings being 

 treated in the some way. Those struck first in the year make excellent bushy- 

 flowering plants by the following autumn, and the last taken off, which is in 

 August and September, make good plants to bloom in the succeeding spring. 

 The old plants, from which the cuttings were first taken, are also shaken out 

 and potted, and they make bushy, well-flowered plants early in the summer. 

 In order to make large specimens, which, however, is seldom done in market 

 gardens (except for supplying cut blooms), old plants are cut back year after 

 year and shaken out and repotted. During summer Bouvardias are grown in 

 cool houses or pits, and sometimes in temporary frames, but in autumn, winter, 

 and spring a moist airy temperature of from 50° to 55° is maintained, except- 

 ing in severe weather, when a little lower temperature does not injure them. 

 During late years some growers plant out their Bouvardias in the open air in 

 summer, a plan by which good plants may be obtained with less labour and 

 expense than in the case of those grown in pots. It however becomes a ques- 

 tion whether they are so valuable to the buyer as well-established pot-plants ; 

 but that, with growers for market, stands for nothing. For planting out, 

 cuttings are inserted early in February, stopped in the same way as before 

 mentioned, and, after being duly hardened off, are planted out about 2 feet 

 apart in well-prepared ground the first week in June. During summer they 

 are kept well supplied with manure- water, the surface-soil is kept well stirred 

 with the hoe, and sometimes a mulching of manure is applied. In the first 

 week of September, when the shoots show bloom, the plants are carefully lifted 

 and potted, and, after being well watered overhead and at the roots, are placed 

 in cold frames, and kept close and shaded until re-established ; after that they 

 are again exposed to air and sunshine, and when the weather gets cold they 

 are placed in houses or warm pits near the glass. By this means strong, bushy, 

 well-flowered specimens are obtained during the winter months which need no 

 stalking or support in any way. Indeed, under no circumstances do market- 

 growers stake Bouvardias, beyond placing a neat deal stick in the centre of 

 each plant, so as to support the branches in a manner to form neat, but by no 

 means formal, conical or pyramidal-shaped plants." 



* The Journal of Horticulture ' gives, in the interests of seedsmen and their 

 assistants, a piece of good advice on the subject of ordering seeds, which is 

 well worth the attention of gardeners who delay sending their seed orders till 

 the last moment, and then expect them to be executed at once. Says your 

 contemporary : — 



" Of the many thousands who purchase seeds few can form any conception 

 of the extraordinary pressure that large firms experience during the busy 

 season. It is only by long preparation and extreme effort; by close — too 

 close — work, almost night and day, that orders can be executed in time to 

 enable the seeds to be of service to the purchasers. By ordering seeds early 

 no more cost is incurred by the purchaser, he has the choice of the first and 

 usually the best stocks of seed, and a great boon is at the same time conferred 

 on seed dealers and their assistants. 



"During the height of the seed season it is absolutely impossible that orders 

 can be executed immediately they are received, and consequently those who 

 do not give the orders before the time for sowing arrives must experience con- 

 siderable inconvenience. The seedsman is then generally blamed for a want 

 of promptitude, when in reality the blame rests with the purchaser and not 

 with the vendor. In order to facilitate the execution of orders, which become 

 unusually heavy as the spring advances, the great seed firms commence pre- 



