'Z20 



Greenliouse and iStoce Flaats. 



pure sand ; they may be placed in bottom- 

 heat it the temperature of the house is not 

 kept sutficiently high at night, otherwise 

 it is not necessary. Keep them moist and 

 covered Avith a bell-glass, and they will 

 strike in a few weeks ; then gradually 

 inure them to the air. As soon as the 

 little pots are fairly furnished with roots, 

 shift them into others 4 inches larger, 

 using the best fibrous peat, with a mode- 

 rate quantity of sand added, but no leaf- 

 mould or manure, which for these and the 

 majority of other plants of a similar 

 character is a mistake, as both decompose 

 too rapidly, getting into a pasty condition. 

 Manurial elements can always be supplied 

 in a liquid state during the period of 

 active growth when the pots have got full 

 of roots, at which time they are most 

 wanted. As soon as growth has fairly 

 commenced pinch out the points to in- 

 duce them to break back, and keep them 

 near the light Avith little or no shade. 

 The atmosphere should be kept moist, 

 with never so much external air admitted 

 as will make it too dry, not even in 

 the hottest parts of the day ; for this 

 reason, it is well to keep these, along with 

 a few of the most heat-requiring subjects, 

 at the warmest end of the house, giving 

 the greater portion of the air needed at the 

 oppii>ite end. The temperature from the 

 beginning of May throughout the summer 

 months should run from 70° to 75° at night, 

 with 5° more by day in dull weather, and 

 5° or lO" above this when it is sunny, will 

 be rather an advantage than otherwise. 

 For an hour or two alter the house is shut 

 up in the afternoons during bright weather 

 tlie temperature may rise to 95°, or even a 

 lew degrees more will do no harm, pro- 

 viding the plants are grown in a good light 

 house, and kept near the glass. After 

 loot-growth fairly commences they must 

 always be Avell supplied ■with water ; never 

 at any time, even during winter, should 

 they be allowed to get so dry as some 

 plants need to be. Continue to treat as 

 just directed, with a liberal use of the 

 syringe until the end of August. The 

 treatment now must be based upon the 

 temperature that can be maintained 

 through the winter, where sufhcient heat 

 can be kept up the plants may be at once 

 moved into pots 6 inches larger than those 

 they occupy, tying out the shoots so as to 

 give enough room to the young growths 

 that in healthy, vigorous plants are always 

 Ijeing produced near the Ijase. Syi-inge 

 now more slightly, and, at the same time, 

 a little more air, with a somewhat drier 

 atmosphere, will be requisite for the general 

 stock in the house ; but the drv condition 



of the atmosphere that used to l>e at one 

 time considered necessary through the 

 autumn and winter for these and most 

 other stove plants is simply wrong. As 

 solar heat decreases reduce tlie tempera- 

 ture, but it should l)e kept up as near to 

 70° at night as possible, with a rise of 5° in 

 the daytime. In this the plants will con- 

 tinue growing slowly through the winter, 

 and with the increased warmth of spring 

 will commence to push away freely. Any 

 shoots that appear to be taking an undue 

 lead may be stopped back. By the end of 

 March plants that were not potted in the 

 autumn should receive a shift, more or less 

 in accordance with the abun<lance or 

 scarcity of the roots. By the l)eginning of 

 May the autumn-moved plants will also 

 need larger pots, and the soil used should 

 now be in a rough, lumpy state and as full 

 of fibre as it can be had, with a fair mix- 

 ture of sand. 



Ixoras are naturally such free flowerers 

 that they ■will bloom while small, in which 

 state they are very useful for the decora- 

 tion of the stove ; if they have Ijeen kept, 

 as suggested, sufficiently warm through the 

 ■winter, they will be in flower during the 

 latter part of ^lay and the beginning of 

 June. As a matter of course, the tempera- 

 ture will have been raised, as in the pre- 

 ceding year, and other details of cultivation, 

 as then recommended, carried out. There 

 is no necessity to cease syringing while the 

 flower-heads are advancing or when the 

 plants are in lih^om, provided the operation 

 is carried out early enough in the after- 

 noon to allow the moisture to dry up 

 before nightfall, otherwise it will some- 

 times cause the unexpanded flowers to drop 

 oft". After flowering, the shoots may be 

 shortened back more or less as may seem to 

 be necessary in order to preserve the sym- 

 metrical form of the plants, Ijut if cut in 

 considerably it will be late in the autumn 

 before they flower again ; whereas, if the 

 decayed trusses of bloom are only just 

 l^inciied out, shoots will be emitted from 

 the sources from which these spring that 

 will make a short growth and then Hower, 

 after which any strong growths that re- 

 cpiire it may be shortened back. Winter 

 the plants as before, and in the spring 

 give additional pot-room as needed. The 

 treatment from this point will be of a 

 routine character as hitherto recommended. 

 When the plants have grown as large 

 as is required, they need not be potted 

 oftenei' than once in two years. In potting 

 remove as much of the soil from the upper 

 portion of the balls as can be got away 

 without too much disturbance of the roots, 

 returning them to the same pots or putting 



