2b4 



THE GARDENERS' MONTHLY 



[September, 



they get, and speedily ask for more, "crocking" is 

 not necessary. 



There is quite an art in Ufting plants from the 

 open ground into pots, if they are to go on and 

 bloom all the winter time. It will not do to let the 

 leaves wilt much, or they will not get up again. 

 They have to be taken with reasonable ball, put 

 into the smallest possible pot, well watered at once, 

 and placed temporarily where the drying air will 

 not draw the moisture from the leaves. The flor- 

 ist who has to lift Bouvardias or Chrysanthemums 

 from the open ground to benches in the green- 

 house, so as to have them in flower all winter, 

 keeps the greenhouse closed, for a few days, so 

 that the moisture cannot get out. He syringes, to 

 add to the atmospheric moisture, and even shades 

 the glass, for it is now known that light is as great 

 an evaporator of water as heat itself. One with 

 a few plants need not go to all this trouble, but 

 can apply the lesson from the larger scale to the 

 smaller one. 



Bulbs for flowering in pots should be placed at 

 once. Four or five-inch pots are suitable. One 

 Hyacinth and about three Tulips are sufficient for 

 each. After potting, plunge the pots over their 

 . rims in sand under the greenhouse stage, letting 

 them remain there until the pots have become well 

 filled with roots, before bringing them on to the 

 shelves to force. 



All that we have so far written has been with 

 the view of getting plenty of flowers with an 

 abundance of light. But in room gardening light 

 cannot always be had, and fortunately there are 

 plants like Begonias, Oxalis, Tradescantias or 

 Spiderworts, that flower with little sun, and then 

 there are numerous shade-loving plants with leaves 

 as pretty as any flowers. 



COMMUNICATIONS. 



CACTUSES. 

 BY A. BLANC. 



It is astonishing what an interest the New 

 Orleans Exhibition has awakened in Cacti. 



True enough, they only need to be seen to be 

 admired, and yet the majority of florists cannot 

 bear them — perhaps, because there is no money in 

 them. 



1 have a collection of about 400 varieties, mostly 

 small plants, but good bloomers ; and even when 

 not in bloom they are always interesting to me. 

 To watch the plants grow, develop their many 

 colored spines, form their buds, expand their beau- 



tiful flowers and bring forth their brilliant seed- 

 pods, is to me just as fascinating as to look over "a 

 collection of valuable paintings. 



When I say florists can't bear them I must ex- 

 cept our friend Mr. John Thorpe, who in answer 

 to that imputation writes me as follows : " You are 

 mistaken when you say 1 hate Cacti ; I love them, 

 but in this greed to live there is no opportunity to 

 make Cacti what they will be in twenty-five years. 

 When I tell you that two of my most intimate 

 friends are Pfersdorff of Paris, a man that has 

 actually slept with a Turcshead for his pillow, and 

 Mr. Peacock, of Hammersmith, London, who has 

 had Cereus cylindricus for a bed-fellow, you will 

 not say your friend John Thorpe hates Cacti." 



Mr. Thorpe, by the way, has probably the finest 

 Pilocereus senilis in this country. It stands forty- 

 six inches high. 



Although for some years I have been supplying 



Astrophytum myriostigma. 



leading European houses with rare Cacti, yet I 

 found it almost impossible to get anything like a 

 complete collection for my private use. So at last 

 I have concluded to send to Europe for specimens 

 of every variety catalogued there, which amounts 

 to nearly nine hundred. It is probably about the 

 best way to get them correctly named, which is 

 a very important item. I have had much trouble 

 in this respect, with some thirty correspondents in 

 Mexico and out West. Ask them for ICchinocac- 

 tus Sileri, Astrophytum myriostigma, or the Red 

 Night-blooming Cereus, and they answer; "Oh, 

 yes, we have them." When at last you pay ten 

 dollars expressage on a box of samples, you get 

 some Opuntias or a Cereus Peruvianus. 



Many Cacti may well be grown for their beauty 

 of form and spines; for instance, Echinocactus 

 Sileri, Whipplei, viridescens, etc. I think one of 



