1873.] DEUTZIA GRACILIS. 223 



DEUTZIA GRACILIS. 



No doubt this plant and its varied qualities are well known to the 

 professional gardener, but I fear that amateurs know less about it as 

 a forcing shrub. Let that be as it may, few of our hardy plants 

 submit with more freedom to artificial heat, during the dreariest months 

 of winter, with but a slight advance of temperature. Much as we 

 admire the Lily of the Yalley, the flowers of this plant are in no way 

 inferior, are similar in shape and colour, of longer duration, and closely 

 arranged on long racemes. Propagation is so easily managed that 

 the merest tyro can have little to fear. This much, however, I may 

 say, that half- ripened wood roots freely when subjected to a high 

 bottom-heat. Subsequent treatment merely consists in having the 

 nurslings put into small pots, hardened off", and ultimately transferred 

 to the open ground. As old plants produce suckers freely, they may 

 be divided ad libitum, and treated as young plants. But unless special 

 circumstances require it, home propagation is scarcely necessary, as 

 plants fit for forcing can always be purchased for a few pence. A 

 flower is always produced on the preceding year's wood ; the old shoots 

 should be cut ofi" close to the ground, and the plants then turned out. 

 This will cause them to grow stronger than if kept in pots. In addi- 

 tion, we have Deutzia scabra, scarcely inferior to gracilis, with the 

 exception that it does not flower so abundantly. Still it deserves our 

 special attention, and well repays our trouble. 



Wherever flower-forcing is carried out to some considerable extent, 

 a house with the convenience of bottom-heat should be specially set 

 apart for this purpose, else less or more failures will certainly occur, 

 traducing the gardener's abilities, and depriving the plant of its proper 

 share of attention. 



The general plan is to make use of early vineries, peach-houses, or 

 any available space where a few spare feet can be spared — a repre- 

 hensible system, that cannot be too strongly discouraged, introducing 

 among fine crops red-spider, green-fly, and a host of other pests. I 

 am sure it would be a great advantage to many were some qualified 

 person to give us an annotated list of shrubs best suited for forcing. 



Alexander Ceamb. 

 tortworth. 



[Will Mr Cramb kindly favour us ?— Ed.] 



