34 WINDOW GARDENTNG. 



to every gallon of water used for watering ; six or eight drops of this liquid can 

 be poured into the water of a hyacinth glass, and the flowers will be much finer. 

 All these special stimulants must be used with caution, be well diluted, applied 

 not oftener than once a week, and once in three weeks will be sufiBcient for the 

 hyacinth. 



Pinching. 



Plants should be kept in good shape by pinching off their shoots from time to 



time, so as to avoid an outward spindling appearance ; straggling branches can 



never be handsome ; but if their shoots are nipped or pinched in every month 



or so, they will grow bushy and have many more blossoms and leaves. Fig. 16 



Fig. 16. 



shows a good pruning scissors. Fuchsias and Pelargoniums are generally 

 stopped once or twice before they flower. When the shoots have grown about 

 three leaves their ends are pinched out; this gives three or four shoots instead of 

 one, and increases the proportion of blossoms, but keeps the plant dwarf. The 

 training of plants is also a matter of taste, usually the form of a half circle is 

 most preferred. Fuchsias trained to single stakes and allowed to droop down 

 are natural objects of beauty. Every gardener has his fancy. Nothing is so pleas- 

 ing as to see a rose trained to stakes in pots bent completely back to the pot, in the 

 shape of a semi-circle — every branch covered with buds just ready to bloom. 



General Suggestions. 

 1. All plants have a season of rest ; therefore discover what season is peculiar 

 to each, and transplant at that time. 2. The best time for taking cuttings is 

 when the plants are in their most active state of growth, and this is be- 

 fore flowering. 3. Profuse bloomings exhaust the strength of plants, there- 

 fore cut off all flower buds as soon as their petals fall, and do not let the 

 seed pods mature unless you desire to raise seeds. 4. All bulbs and tubers 

 should be planted before they begin to shoot; if suffered to form leaves and roots 

 in the air, they waste their strength. 5. Never remove the leaves from bulbs 

 after flowering until they are quite dead. As long as the leaves retain life thej^ are 

 employed in preparing nourishment and transmitting it to the roots. 6. Window 



