THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 



ALTH.'EA. 



427 



the height desired, taking into considera- 

 tion the usual height and habit of the 

 plant. By topping you increase the size 

 of the flower, but at the same time shorten 

 its duration, and perhaps disfigure its 

 appearance. Stake them before they get 

 too high, tying them securely, so as to 

 induce them to grow erect. The most 



Althaea rosea (Double-flowered Hollyhock). 



robust will not require a stake higher than 

 4 ft. If the weather is dry, they may be 

 watered with a solution of guano or any 

 other liquid manure poured carefully 

 round the roots, but not too near the stem. 

 But it is in the garden, not the exhibition, 

 one wants the Hollyhock. 



Propagation is effected from eyes, 

 cuttings, seeds, or careful division. Holly- 



hocks may be propagated by single eyes, 

 put in in July and August, and also by 

 cuttings put in in spring, on a slight hot- 

 bed. Plants raised in summer are best 

 preserved by putting them in October 

 into 4-in. or 5-in. pots in light, rich, sandy 

 earth, and then placing them in a cold 

 frame or greenhouse, giving them plenty 

 of air on all favourable occasions. Thus 

 treated they will grow a little in winter. 

 In March or April turn them out into the 

 open ground, and they will bloom as finely 

 and as early as if planted in autumn. 

 Plants put out even in May will flower the 

 same year. If seeds are sown in autumn 

 in a box or pan in heat, as soon as they 

 are ripe, potted off and grown on in a pot 

 through the winter, and planted out the fol- 

 lowing April, they will flower in the same 

 summer and autumn. If allowed to remain 

 in the beds or borders where they have 

 flowered, choice Hollyhocks often perish 

 from damp, or from snow settling round 

 their collars, or penetrating the cavity left 

 by the too close removal of the flower- 

 stems. At the approach of winter, say in 

 October, carefully lift all it is desired to 

 save, and lay them close together in a 

 slanting direction, at an angle of about 

 45*^, in a warm mellow soil at the foot of a 

 wall or hedge, where, in hard weather, 

 shelter can easily be given. The ground 

 that is to receive them can then be 

 thoroughly worked in winter, and if a 

 little rotten turf is put in with them 

 when replanted in March or April, good 

 spikes and large flowers may be ex- 

 pected. Choice and scarce varieties may 

 l3e either potted up or planted out in 

 a frame. Potting them is the better way, 

 because they can be placed in a green- 

 house or vinery, on shelves near the glass 

 Some of the stools will have numerous 

 growths starting from them, and unless 

 the plants have a little heat early in the 

 year, many of the cuttings cannot be pro- 

 pagated soon enough to flower the same 

 season. Growers in the south of England 

 have an advantage with these spring- 

 struck cuttings as there is quite three 

 weeks' difference between the time of 

 flowering in the south and in the northern 

 districts of England and in Scotland. 

 Root-grafting gives the propagator a 

 little advantage, and early in the year 

 the plants are propagated more readily 

 in a light frame fixed in a heated propa- 

 gating house. A hotbed is uncertain, 

 as there is sometimes too much heat, 

 and then not enough. Although the 

 young side shoots of old stocks will root in 

 a gentle bottom-heat in spring, they ma\' 

 also be increased in July, just before the 



