452 THE GARDENER. [Oct. 



growth sufficient to bloom satisfactorily, the best way is to cut the 

 plants severely back into the old wood, allowing them to break in a 

 moderate heat ; then to allow them to become rather dry, and parti- 

 ally shake the soil from them, and repot in fresh soil in the same 

 sized pots. Thus reduced at top, and supplied with fresh soil, they 

 will make strong growths that will yield finer blooms than if left 

 undisturbed, and will go on by the aid of stimulants to bloom satis- 

 factorily for a few years again. 



The secret of successful Azalea-culture lies in making them produce 

 a moderately healthy growth annually, and thoroughly ripening that 

 growth. All other things being equal, this insures a crop of fine 

 strong blooms. 



The Azalea can be had in bloom from October to July, and no plant 

 repays good culture with a more gorgeous display of bloom through- 

 out the winter months. The way to get an autumn bloom is to force 

 the plants early into growth in stove-heat near the glass, keep- 

 ing them in heat until their buds are prominent, then to rest them 

 awhile, and put them in a gentle heat the end of September. I have 

 for years practised this course with success. The best condition of 

 plant for this early blooming is a young healthy plant well rooted, 

 but that has not stood long enough in the same pot to get any way 

 stunted. When they have opened their blooms thus early, they stand 

 in bloom for many weeks in a moderately dry atmosphere at a tempera- 

 ture of 55° at night ; and I have seen them stand in sitting-rooms for 

 a long time : and few plants so charm as a well-bloomed Azalea in 

 the end of October and on through the winter months. 



Some varieties are much better for blooming in autumn and winter 

 than others, and among those which I have found most desirable to 

 grow for this purpose are Iveryana, Le Lion de Flandre, Clapham 

 Beauty, Punctulata, Roi Leopoldii, President van den Hecke, Fielder's 

 White, and of course the old Amoena, as well as the varieties of 

 Triumphans. 



FLORIST FLOWERS. 



THE HYACINTH (hYACIXTHUS ORIENTALIS). 



The Hyacinth is a native of the Levant, an old and valued inmate of 

 British gardens, and was cultivated in the time of Gerrard at the end of 

 the sixteenth century. Gerrard mentions the single and double blue, 

 the purple and the white varieties existing at that time ; and there is 

 every reason to conclude that the Dutch possessed many improved 

 kinds. Parkinson, some thirty years after, enumerates eight varieties, 



