1879.] CULTIVATION OF GARDENIAS. 163 



plants, and care and forethought exercised in preparing or retarding: 

 them, as the case may be, the blooming of Gardenias can be extended 

 over seven or eight months, provided a sufficient number of plants 

 can be cultivated, and the plants are prepared for the various seasons. 

 The natural blooming-time, if under ordinary stove treatment, will 

 be through March, April, and May. To produce them in early 

 autumn takes considerable time, more room, and a large number 

 of plants to work upon. 



The Gardenia is subject to all kinds of insects which infest 

 plants, and if every attention is not paid to keep it thoroughly 

 clean, much trouble and annoyance are caused, and in the end, 

 instead of a crop of fine flowers, the cultivator reaps disappointment. 

 This is perhaps the reason why the Gardenia is not more largely 

 grown in some private places, especially where plant- houses are 

 badly infested with mealy - bug, scale, and other insects, which 

 seem at once to arrest the growth; and but little success can be 

 anticipated. When out of flower, well-grown plants in exuberant 

 growth are beautiful to look upon, on account of the dark glossy 

 foliage which is so characteristic of the plant when in good health. 



The propagation of Gardenias can be effected at almost any 

 season of the year from cuttings. These are by no means difficult 

 to strike from the ripened wood. We, however, prefer striking 

 about August from half-ripened wood, as this leaves the whole of 

 the following year before us to start early in the season and grow the 

 plants as large as possible. The cuttings are best inserted singly in 

 small pots in a mixture of peat and sand, and plunged into bottom- 

 heat until rooted in the propagating house or frame. If practicable, 

 a little bottom-heat should be applied through the whole season up 

 to the end of August. This will make the plants grow more rapidly, 

 and produce nice bushes in 6-inch pots, if properly attended to in the 

 way of watering, potting, stopping, and shading for a few hours 

 during the hottest part of the day. In potting, the pots should be 

 carefully drained, and a little moss, or a portion of the roughest part 

 of the compost, laid over the crocks. The compost we find most 

 suitable after the young plants are rooted and require larger pots 

 is a rich fibry loam and peat, using a 6-inch potful of bone-dust to 

 every barrowful of soil, and a good dash of sharp silver-sand to 

 make the whole porous. The soil should be pressed firmly into the 

 pots. Keep the house or pit in which they are growing close until 

 they have taken to the new soil. The atmosphere should be moist, 

 and the plants well syringed overhead. If the plants are plunged, 

 and the soil in moderately moist condition at the time of potting, 

 the plants will not need watering, at least for a few days, which will 



