288 
Greenhouse and Stove Plants. 
PLUMBAGO ROSEA. 
bear in mind that this and all other plants 
that open their flowers during the winter 
season are better not grown with more heat 
than is found necessary, for if they are 
subjected to a temperature higher than 
requisite the flowers will be of shorter 
duration on the plant and of less use when 
cut. 
It strikes readily from cuttings which 
the old plants produce freely if, after 
blooming, they are kept in a temperature 
of 60° in the night, and a little warmer 
during the day ; so managed, young shoots 
will be present in abundance about the 
beginning of March. Insert them three 
or four together in 4-inch pots drained 
and half filled with a mixture of sandy 
soil, the remainder all sand ; keep moist, 
cover with propagating glasses, and let the 
temperature be a little above that in which 
the plants have stood to produce the cut- 
tings. When well rooted move them 
singly into 3-inch pots, using good ordi- 
nary loam with some rotten manure and 
enough sand to keep the whole porous ; 
pot firmly and do not give much air for a 
few days until they have begun to root in 
the new soil, after which inure them to 
the full air admitted to the house, and 
place them where they will have plenty of 
light. Increase the temperature as the 
sun gets more powerful, and give corre- 
spondingly more air in the middle of the 
day ; shade slightly when the sun is very 
bright, damp overhead with the syringe at 
the time of shutting the air off, and when 
some growth has been made cut out the 
tops of the shoots, removing three or four 
joints, for if, in stopping this and other 
similar erect-habited plants that are little 
disposed to break back, only just the points 
are pinched off, they often merely break a 
single shoot ; whereas by removing more 
of the soft top of the shoots two or three 
breaks will frequently result. By the be- 
ginning of June move them into 8 or 9 
inch pots, which will be large enough to 
grow and flower them in the first year. 
Use soil similar to that advised for the 
first potting, but a little more lumpy in 
texture ; pot firmly, as with everything of 
the habit possessed by this plant a loose, 
insufficiently solidified condition of the 
soil tends to encourage weak, straggling 
growth. 
During the summer the plants will do 
with an ordinary stove temperature ; 
although able to bear as much heat as 
most species from the warmest regions of 
the eastern hemisphere, 65° in the night 
will answer, with an increase by day pro- 
portionate to the state of the weather. As 
soon as fairly established in the larger pots 
. 
stop the shoots again in the manner before 
advised. All through the summer they 
will do better in a low pit if it gives 
plenty of light, as here they can be placed 
nearer the roof than in an ordinary house. 
This is important with quick-growing 
plants like this Plumbago, as under such 
conditions they make shorter - jointed 
wood, and have always more roots, both 
of which materially influence their ability 
to produce flowers. As the days get 
shorter cease shading, give more air, and 
do not syringe overhead ; this is necessary 
to induce a slower formation of growth 
and to solidify that which has been made 
through the season. The plants may 
be divided so that bloom may be had in 
succession ; those intended to come in 
first should, about the middle of October, 
be moved into the stove where a night 
temperature of 60° or over, and a little 
higher in the daytime, can be kept up. 
Stand them so that the tops of the shoots 
will be within a few inches of the roof- 
glass—the nearer to it the better, if not 
absolutely touching ; if the pots are very 
full of roots, a little weak manure-water 
once a week will be an advantage. Give 
as much air in the middle of fine days as 
the other occupants of the house will bear, 
and do not use more atmospheric moisture 
than needful, as the drier it is within 
reasonable limits the stouter the flowers 
will be. The plants intended to succeed 
the first must not be kept too cool ; they 
should not remain where they will be 
below 55° by night, or the roots are liable 
to suffer, in which case the blooms will be 
weak and small in quantity. After the 
first crop of flowers produced from the 
points of the shoots is over, if the plants 
are strong they will break back and push 
a second lot from the base of the leaves on 
the upper portions of the shoots. When 
the flowering is over give less water to the 
roots, and keep the plants for a time in a 
dormant state, after which they may be 
started into growth in the way already de- 
scribed to produce cuttings, or, if it is de- 
sired to grow them on another season, they 
may as soon as broken into growth have 
the soil partially shaken from the old balls, 
be repotted in fresh material, and grown’ 
on as* in the preceding summer. When 
required for planting out so as to cover a 
pillar or wall in the way alluded to at the 
commencement, these one-year-old plants 
will best answer the purpose, as if planted, 
as they necessarily need to be in such 
situations, at some distance from the glass, 
newly-struck examples have a tendency to 
become drawn up and weak. When this 
Plumbago is to be grown in this way it 
