ALLAMANDA GR AND IF L R A. 



When well grown and flowered, this is one of the handsomest of the Allamandas, 

 and it is not very difBcult to manage. Let us begin with a young plant in a five- 

 inch pot, bought in spring from the nursery. Such a plant, if in good health, will 

 in general be found to be what is termed pot-bound. The first operation, there- 

 fore, under such circumstances, will be to turn it out of the pot, remove the crocks, 

 and carefully to disentangle the roots. If the latter are healthy, give rather a 

 liberal shift — say into an eight-inch pot, using a mixture of one-half good fibry 

 loam, one-quarter peat, and one-quarter leaf-mould, with a little sharp sand. Ex- 

 perience has proved that a soil of this kind, well mixed, and chopped up with the 

 spade (not sifted), on an efficient drainage, suits it perfectly ; but if peat cannot 

 be had, then three-quarters loam, and one-quarter leaf-mould and sand, might 

 answer. In both cases, place a layer of some of the most fibry and rough soil 

 over the drainage, with a view to make the latter act perfectly and permanently. 



After potting, give a thorough watering, to settle the soil about the roots, and 

 place it in a smart bottom-heat, in a moist stove. When it shows symptoms of 

 breaking, if the plant is weakly or drawn, cut it down to a prominent bud on the 

 ripe wood, or, in the case of a stronger plant, bend it down, in order the better 

 to equalize the flow of the sap, and cause the buds at the bases of the shoots to 

 start simultaneously with those at their tops. Judicious watering and occasional 

 tying will now be all that it will want, until it has filled the pot with roots, and 

 requires a shift, which will probably be some time in June ; for it must be remem- 

 bered that it should not be allowed to blossom the first year. The point to be 

 kept in view is, to have a good, strong plant furnished in autumn with well-ripened 

 wood, from which abundance of bright yellow flowers may be expected the follow- 

 ing season. 



About the beginning or middle of June, if all has gone on well, it will be 

 found to have filled its pots with tine, healthy roots, and should be shifted into an 

 eleven-inch pot, using the same compost as before. After shifting, continue the 

 generous growing treatment already recommended, until the end of autumn is 

 approached, when water should be gradually withheld, and all the light and air 

 that is possible given to it, to ripen the wood well, an important point in the cul- 

 ture of all plants, but more especially so in that of the Allamanda. Keep it all 

 but dry during the gloomy months of early winter, and about the middle of Feb- 

 ruary start it into growth. Prune the unripe tops oS" the old wood ; and if a 

 large and fine specimen is desired, shift it when it begins to break, and plunge it 

 again into bottom-heat. Train the branches well out on a barrel-shaped trellis, 

 which may consist of seven or eight nice hazel rods, of sufficient length, placed 

 in the soil immediately inside the pot, fastened to a hoop about their middle, and 

 then to a smaller hoop at their top. Bend the shoots of the plant round this, so 

 as to cover it regularly ; and when the young branches have begun to grow freely, 

 train the strongest of them near the bottom of the trellis, so as to have your plant 

 regularly covered with flowers, which it will be by the middle of July, if the fore- 

 going directions have been carefully carried out. 



In the third and fourth years it will flower earlier and better than in the second, 

 and it will not require to be shifted ; but it should be fed occasionally with clear 

 liquid manure water, to keep it healthy and vigorous, without being over-luxuriant, 

 quid manure, I mean clear, weak dung- water from the stable-yard. — Alph 

 ardeners' Chronicle. 



