Greenhouse and Stove Plants. 



201 



the same thing happens wherever their 

 cultivation is attempted, even with the 

 most experienced growers who exercise 

 the greatest attention and closest observa- 

 tion. Notwithstanding these serious draw- 

 backs, they are plants that cannot be 

 omitted from any collection that has pre- 

 tensions to being at all complete. They are 

 among the freest bloomers, producing their 

 finely-coloured, singularly-formed tiowers 

 in profusion. There is no plant that lasts 

 longer in bloom when in good health ; the 

 crop of flowers for next year is set before 

 the current year's are off ; they keep on 

 gradually growing, and six months before 

 they expand the plants are very effective. 

 They also flower freely, at any size from 6 

 inches through to as many feet. If there 

 is any cause to which we could ascribe their 

 liability to die off so quickly it is to the 

 plants having been struck from cuttings 

 somewhat soft, produced in heat. Plants 

 that we have struck somewhat cool and 

 slowly, from the points of well-ripened 

 shoots, lived and grew on for years as 

 freely as could be desired. They are 

 plants that evidently do not require any- 

 thing more than the coolest greenhouse 

 temperature, as they keep their roots 

 always in action during the winter mth a 

 temperature only just sufficient to keep 

 out frost, but at the same time the atmos- 



Ehere must be dry, or they will suffer 

 ■om mildew, to which they are much 

 more subject than most things. The 

 parasite must be diligently sought for at 

 all seasons of the year, or it is useless to 

 attempt their cultivation, as, if left un- 

 checked, even for ever so short a time, it 

 gets established and does injury that no 

 after-treatment can repair. The plants 

 require the best place in a thoroughly 

 good house, well elevated up to the glass, 

 with plenty of air during the season of 

 their more active growth. Xever use 

 shade except in their early stages or after 

 potting, when this has been carried out 

 far on Lq summer, which, it never 

 should be, for, as already observed, the 

 roots when in health are always more or 

 less active, which admits of their being 

 moved either in the autumn when the 

 sun's power is far declined, or early in 

 the season before it has much drying in- 

 fluence. 



Those who, in commencing their culture, 

 purchase plants should always take care to 

 select such as are free and not too large 

 for the pots they occupy, for if they are at 

 all pot-bound while young the chances are 

 that they will die before they take to 

 the new soil after potting. All the varieties 

 require good fibrous peat, ■with one-seventh 



I sand added, unless the peat naturally con- 

 tains a considerable quantity. Pot firmly, 

 and allow a little more space for water for 

 these plants than for most hardwooded 

 subjects, as when they require water there 

 must be no half applications, or they will 

 speedily perish. 



Hedaromas strike from cuttings made of 

 the points of the shoots either taken off" in 

 a comparatively' soft immatiu'e condition in 

 the spring or summer, or from the mature 

 : growth in autumn; the latter although the 

 ] slower process we much prefer, for, as 

 I already said, we have found plants pro- 

 I duced from such invariably much less 

 ! liable to die off suddenly. The cuttings, 

 I consisting of moderately strong shoots 

 about 3 inches long, should be taken off 

 I in September when the wood is getting 

 I modeiately hard, put 2 or 3 inches apart 

 [ in pots or pans in sand, kept close and 

 moist, under a propagating glass in a tem- 

 perature of 50" or 55" in the night through 

 the autumn and A\'inter, with, as a matter 

 of course, a little more warmth by day ; so 

 managed they will root in spring. About 

 the end of May move singly into 3-inch 

 pots using fine sandy peat, and stopping 

 the points at the same time ; keep a little 

 close until the roots have begun to move, 

 when gradually expose to the full air of 

 the house ; always give water as soon as 

 required. A little shade may be an as- 

 sistance this season in the biightest 

 weather. Keep a little closer by the ad- 

 mission of less air to the house than is 

 given to larger greenhouse stock, and 

 syringe the material on which they stand 

 in the afternoons up to the end of August, 

 after which give more air and no shade so 

 as to get the groAvth well hardened up 

 before winter, through which keep them 

 at about 45° in the night. In March if 

 the plants are, as they may be expected to 

 be, in A-igorous health, and have plenty of 

 roots, give them 7-inch pots, stopping" the 

 leading shoots and tying them well out. 

 Treat through the summer as ordinary 

 young greenhouse stock, mth plenty of light 

 and a little shade in very bright weather, and 

 give more water than most hardwooded 

 plants require. Winter as in the preced- 

 ing year, and again in March give them a 

 shift ; they should now bear putting into 

 pots 4 inches larger. Keep a little closer 

 for a month, during which time shade if 

 the weather is dry and sunny. The reason 

 for gi\'ing them a larger shift than would 

 be advisable with most greenhouse sub- 

 jects is, that there may be no necessity for 

 a second potting during the hot season of 

 the year, when they are more likely to 

 If at the time of potting, 



suffer from it. 



