112 



Greenhouse and /Stuce Plants. 



CLERODENDBON. 



moved and the plants placed for a week or 

 two in a li;^'lit situation ; they should then 

 be moved into 6 or 7 inch pots, according 

 to the quantity of roots which they are 

 found to have made when turned out of 

 the cutting pots. Let them be potted in 

 good fibrous loam, not broken too fine. To 

 this should be added one-fifth rotten 

 manure and an equal quantity of sand ; 

 make the soil quite firm in the pots, and 

 place them on a shelf as near the glass as 

 they can be got. This is important in order 

 to keep them dwarf and short-jointed, upon 

 which in a great measure depends their good 

 appearance afterwards moie than in the 

 case of most plants ; if allowed to become 

 at all drawn no subsequent treatment can 

 furnish them with stout, healthy leaves 

 do^\^l to the pots until they have been 

 headed down, which would entail the loss 

 of a season. They must never be allowed 

 to suffer from want of water, or the leaves 

 will be injured. Syringe freely every 

 alternoon both the upper and under sur- 

 faces of the foliage ; they will require 

 slightly shading in very bright weather 

 until the middle of September, when it 

 should be discontinued ; give more air 

 and reduce the temperature to 65° at 

 night, and proportionately low during the 

 day, lowering it 5° more as the days get 

 shorter. During -winter little growth 

 will be made, and correspondingly less 

 water must be given ; but as these Cle- 

 rodendrons do not require the wood to be 

 ripened so much as that of most plants, 

 they must never be allowed to get too dry 

 at the roots, so as to cause the leaves to 

 flag, or they vnll be injured. Keep them 

 where they will have plenty of light, and 

 continue this treatment until the middle 

 of February, when the temperature should 

 be raised 5° day and night, and the plants 

 moved into 10-in. pots, now using the soil 

 in larger pieces than before, but with a 

 similar quantity of manure and sand added. 

 After this be careful not to give too much 

 water until the roots have g(jt well hold of 

 the soil ; towards the latter end of Maicli 

 raise the temijerature 5° more, and begin 

 to syringe overhead in the afternoon. 

 They will now grow fast, and should have 

 a little air in the daytime ; as the sun gets 

 powerful a slight shade will also be neces- 

 sary in the middle of the day. They make 

 roots freely, and by the end of May they 

 should be moved into 13-in. pots, which 

 size will be large enough for the present 

 season, using soil such as that recom- 

 mended for the preAaous shift. The 

 temperature may now be kept at 70° in 

 the night if the plants are required to 

 flower early in the season, but with this 



heat they must be placed near the glass 

 and be allowed a moderate amount of air 

 every day. About the end of June they 

 should siiow bloom, when they may have 

 manui'e-water given twice a week. In a 

 few weeks the flowers will commence to 

 ojjcn ; the plants can then be moved to 

 the coolest end of the stove, or if a house 

 is available where lr intermediate tem- 

 perature is kept up they may be removed 

 to it, which will prolong their time of 

 blooming. When the flowering is over, 

 if the spikes are cut out at the bottom just 

 above where they spring from the upper 

 leaves, and the plants are again subjected 

 to a brisk heat, they will push up one or 

 more shoots from the points from which 

 the flower-stems were removed, and will 

 bloom again in SeptemTjer ; after this they 

 may be cut down to within 8 or 10 inches 

 of the bottom, and should be kejjt at about 

 65° at night and a little higher in the day- 

 time, .syringing daily, but not giving much 

 Avater to the soil until they have again 

 begun to grow ; the temperature may be 

 lowered as in the preceding autumn, 

 wintering them as before. As the days 

 lengthen give them more warmth ; in 

 March take them out of their pots and 

 remove one-third of the old soil, putting 

 them in others 2 or 3 inches larger ; press 

 the soil moderately firm, and treat them 

 in every way as during the preAaous 

 summer, except that they will not require 

 potting a second time ; they will flower again 

 twice, but they must not be cut back 

 after the first blooming further than just 

 removing the flower-stems. Plants thus 

 treated will last for years, and may, if 

 desired, be grown in 18 or 20 inch pots, 

 in which way they will attain a large size, 

 bearing eight or ten spikes of bloom at a 

 time. 



C. Kcempferi. This handsome South 

 American sjjecies Ijears scarlet flowers. 

 It (and also C. fallax) can be raised from 

 seeds somti as soon as ripe in autumn ; but 

 in order to obtain them the first flower- 

 stems of the season must not be removed 

 birt allowed to remain on the plant until 

 the seed is matured. Sow the seeds 

 singly in small pots, covering them with a 

 quarter of an inch of soil. They will soon 

 vegetate, and will r^equire treating in every 

 way similarly to young plants raised from 

 cuttings. 



G. frarjrans fi.-pl This is a weaker 

 grooving plant than the preceding, produc- 

 ing close, compact heads of pinkish white 

 double flowers, so highly arrd agreeably 

 scented as to be preferred by many to those 

 of Dajdrne indica, Tulierose, or the old Clove 

 Carnation. It recjuires similar treatment 



