Greenhouse and Stove Plants 



59 



ginning of March they will require potting ; 

 give tlieni a shift, say into about 7-inch 

 pots ; use nothing but good fibrous peat, 

 broken into pieces about the size of acorns, 

 and sufficient silver sand to ensure porosity. 

 After potting keep the house a little close. 

 Through April and May give them a night 

 temperature of 55° to 60°, day 70° to 75°, 

 and syringe regularly overhead every after- 

 noon. Do not stop any shoot, as is often 

 done, unless it is one that is much stronger 

 than the rest ; if they run a foot long 

 during the season so much the better, the 

 object being to get a good open framework 

 as a foundation for the future plant, which 

 can be sufficiently filled up afterwards. 

 Through June, July, and August, keep the 

 temperature up to 60° or 65° by night, and 

 75° to 80° by day, with sun-heat. If they 

 set blooms in the course of the summer nip 

 them out, and they will push a second 

 growth. Discontinue syringing about the 

 end of September, give more air, and re- 

 duce the heat both day and night. Keep 

 them on until the end of February at a 

 temperature similar to the preceding year ; 

 in the beginning of ilarch give them more 

 heat, and syringe overhead every afternoon 

 as recommended last spring, and as soon as 

 the roots are moving repot into 10 or 

 11 inch pots, using similar soil and potting 

 hard as before. Let their general treat- 

 ment all through the summer be the same 

 as the last. Most of the plants will set 

 bloom by midsummer — remove all such 

 and they will push a second growth and 

 set a full crop of buds by the end of Sep- 

 tember, or middle of October— a month 

 previous to which leave off syringing, give 

 more air and keep the temperature pretty 

 well up, with a drier atmosphere to ripen 

 their buds. 



It will now be time to determine what 

 shape the plants are ultimately to be 

 trained to, as there should be a few more 

 sticks used, and they should be trained 

 into something like the shape intended. 

 Any shoots that have a tendency to grow 

 much stronger than others should be tied 

 down so as to bring their points near the 

 Ijase uf the plant, which will have the 

 effect of equalising their growth. On no 

 account train them close in specimen 

 fashion, but simply arrange the shoots so 

 as to lay the foundation for the future 

 specimen. Let the winter treatment be 

 considerably cooler than before, 40° or a 

 little under will answer. The plants will 

 bloom nicely, but must not be placed when 

 in flower in a draughty conservatory with 

 a dry atmosphere, for at the time of flower- 

 ing they will be full of young growth, 

 which would be so hardened by such treat- 



ment that it would be difficult to get it to 

 move freely afterwards ; and by pushing 

 them forward in a similar temperature, and 

 at the same time, as in the previous season, 

 they will make two growths again during 

 the summer. Pot them this season, as soon 

 as they have flowered, into 13 or 14 inch 

 pots, and let their general treatment be the 

 same as hitherto prescribed. 



After this period it M'ill be neither neces- 

 sary nor advisable to induce them to make 

 moie than one growth in a season ; con- 

 sequently they will require to be again 

 wintered cool. A night temperature of 

 36° to 40° will answer, and the heat must 

 be correspondingly lo\A'er in the day. Many 

 growers turn their plants out-of-doors in 

 summer, and this treatment is admissable 

 with such as are forced early, and make 

 their growth correspondingly early in the 

 season, but those that bloom later without 

 forcing are better kept indoors altogether ; 

 so managed, they produce flowers larger and 

 finer in colour. Get them tied as early as 

 convenient in the autumn, if possible before 

 their growth has got hard and the bloom- 

 buds ripened, as by so doing the points of 

 the shoots will turn upwards and assume 

 their natural position, which will make 

 them look much better than if they are 

 allowed to harden their shoots before tjing, 

 as in that case the wood will be too stiff to 

 right itself in this way. Use no more sticks 

 than are absolutely necessary. Do not tie 

 them in nearly so close as full-grown speci- 

 mens A\-ould require to be ; the object for 

 some time yet is to increase their size. 



Much has been said and written about 

 the training of Azaleas. We see some col- 

 lections that are trained on pyramidal 

 circular wire trellises, with every shoot tied 

 and twisted down until the whole surface 

 of the plant is as even as if it were clipped 

 with a pair of shears. Nothing in existence 

 can look more unnatural. In a house full 

 of specimen Azaleas all the plants should 

 be somewhat diftcrent in shape, which can 

 easily he done by making some a little 

 witler than others, some higher, others 

 lower over the pots, and others again not 

 so pointed at the t(ip ; and all more or less 

 slightly irregular in their outline, by draw- 

 ing up a branch here and there, and depress- 

 ing others, so as to form slight protuberances 

 in one place and small hollows in others, yet 

 still the whole surface covered with flowers. 

 This can easily be done liy an expert 

 trainer, especially if, as before suggested, 

 the plants are tied while the shoots are soft 

 and yet growing, and these little inequalities 

 will look as if produced naturally. In fact, 

 the principal art in plant-tying is to conceal 

 the art, and to gi\e as much natural aj)- 



