BOUVARDIA. 



Gveenlioiisa and Stove Planh: 



will push up more growth, to assist which 

 manure-water should be liberally given 

 every other time they are watered ; when 

 again showing flower the plants can be 

 placed in a cooler situation, and so prepared 

 to stand a lower temperature when in 

 bloom, as during the previous summer. 

 Afterwards they can again be hardened 

 oflF and wintered as before. If large speci- 

 mens are wanted, they should at the spring 

 potting, instead of being placed in the 

 smaller pots as advdsed, have more root- 

 room, pots 18-in. diameter, with larger 

 trellises to train them on, and in other re- 

 spects be treated as recommended for the 

 smaller plants. They will last for several 

 yeais so managed ; each spring about half 

 the old soil should be removed, the roots 

 cut back proportionately at the time of 

 re-potting, ami the jjlants supplied liberally 

 with manure-water during the season of 

 active growth ; at this time they will bear 

 its application every other day. 



B. glabra. Equally suitable for planting 

 out in either a warm stove or an intermediate 

 house. When so used it should be gro'WTi 

 in a pot the first season, and the shoots not 

 stopped until they have attained a length 

 proportionate to the place they are to 

 occupy. The border it is planted in should 

 be well prepared by being properly drained, 

 and should consist of 12 inches deep of 

 good soil, similar in character to that ad- 

 vised for pot-culture. The plant, on 

 account of its free-gro\ving disposition, 

 quickly exhausts the soil, and consequently 

 it will need as much removed each spring 

 before growth commences as can be got 

 away without too much interference with 

 the roots ; replace it with new, at the 

 same time cutting back the head of the 

 plant as it may require, but in the growing 

 season do not keep the branches too closely 

 tied in — a loose, free disposition of them 

 being the most effective. When planted 

 out it should not have much water in 

 the winter. 



B. speciosa and B. sjKctahilis. Are both 

 more suitable for planting out than pot 

 culture, being stronger growers than the 

 preceding. B. spectabilis is a grand plant 

 for this purpose, succeeding better in the 

 temperature of an intermediate house than 

 when grown hotter. The treatment it 

 requires is similar to that of B. glabra, and 

 it especially needs a free use of the knife 

 each spring after flowering — not before 

 it blooms, as in the case of B. glabra ; the 

 same observation applies to B. speciosa. 

 When it has got large enough to fill the 

 space allotted to it, remove the weakest 

 wood. The room allowed for the roots 

 should in all cases be proportionate to the ( 



space the heads of the plants are intended 

 to occupy ; never give too much soil, other- 

 wise, being naturally such free-growing 

 subjects, it becomes difficult to keep them 

 within bounds. 



Insects. — Bougainvilleas are subject to 

 the attacks of aphides, thrips, and red 

 spider. The two first can be destroyed by 

 fumigation with tobacco smoke ; the last 

 can be kept under by a free use of the 

 syringe. If scale or mealy bug aft'ect them, 

 diligent use of the sponge and copious 

 syringing must be resoited to, washing the 

 plants, when cut back in the spring, with 

 insecticide. 



BOUVARDIA. 



These rank among the freest-floweiing 

 eveigreen plants that we possess, and in 

 all but continuous habit of blooming they 

 have few equals. The flowers are alike 

 eftective on the plants, or when used in a 

 cut state, for which purpose their simple 

 form and the purity of their coloius befit 

 them. Another projjerty which they possess 

 is their ability to bloom in the smallest state, 

 when not more than a few inches high. 



They are natives of Mexic(j, and, like a 

 good many others that hail fiom the same 

 country, they will live under a consider- 

 able range of temperature, varying from 

 that of a greenhouse, or even of the ojien 

 air in the summer, to a warm stove in 

 winter. To the latter, A\-ith a ^•iew to get 

 them to produce the largest quantity of 

 flowers of which well-prepaied plants are 

 capable, it is necessary to subject them, as 

 under such conditions they keep on mak- 

 ing new shoots that yield flowers in a way 

 not possible when the plants are kept in a 

 temperature only sufficient to induce the 

 flowers to open. Bouvardias ha\e been 

 long known to some extent by plant 

 growers in this country, but it is only 

 within comparatively recent years that 

 their merits have been imderstood. So 

 indispensable are they where enduring 

 flowers are requiied continuously through 

 the winter, that no gaiden where there is 

 the requisite means for blooming them 

 should be without them. In the United 

 States much improvement has been effected 

 by raising new varieties, which have aU 

 but superseded the kinds first known to us. 

 At one time much difficulty existed in 

 propagating them in the ordinary way 

 from cuttings made of the shoots, and their 

 increase was generally effected by cuttings 

 of the roots. But a method of j^reparing 

 the plants to produce cuttings that root 

 without difficulty has been hit upon. To 

 have the plants in a condition strong 



