268 



Greenhouse and Stove Plants. 



PASSIFLORA. 



with less. Keep tliem well up to the glass 

 ^\■he^■e all the light possible will I'each 

 them, using a thin shade during the 

 middle of the day, but not more than is 

 found necessary to prevent the leaves 

 scorching ; give air daily more or less 

 according to the state of the weather, 

 syringe freely overliead at the time of 

 closing the house, but not oftener even 

 in the hottest weather, for when carried 

 beyond this it is a practice which we may 

 here allude to as highly injurious to all 

 but a very few exceptionally moisture- 

 requiring subjects; it excites undue giowth 

 at the expense of substance and soliclity in 

 both the leaves and shoots. The stopping 

 of the single shoot, that each will so far be 

 composed of, must needs be regulated by the 

 puri>ose the plants are wanted for; if to cover 

 an end wall or to occupy seveiul I'afters in 

 the roof, it will be necessary to pinch out the 

 point of the shoot once or more, so as to 

 induce the production of several growths 

 to fill the space required ; but if to be 

 grown, as these plants sometimes are, where 

 space is limited, lengthways of the house, 

 over a path where one or two branches are 

 trained to wires as near the glass as the 

 rafters will permit, they will only require 

 stopping so far as to fuinish the few growths 

 needed. In this way they will flower 

 freely, but have not so nice an appearance 

 as when occupying a position where the 

 blooming shoots can hang down in a looser 

 manner. By the end of July another shift 

 will be required ; 10-inch pots by this time 

 will not be over large, and as soon as the 

 shoots have attained sufficient length the 

 l^lants may be put in the position they are 

 intended jjermanently to occupy. 



If to be planted out, the border in which 

 the roots are to be placed should not be too 

 large, or it will be difficult to keep the 

 plants within l:)ounds. The bottom must 

 be well drained, with the requisite egress 

 below for the water to get away. This is a 

 matter that frequently does not receive suffi- 

 cient attention, from a supjaosition that the 

 surplus water that soaks through the soil 

 in the process of watering will find its way 

 off ; yet such is by no means the case, as 

 after a time the undei' surface gets almost 

 impervious to water, and the roots, which, 

 with free-growing plants like these Passi- 

 floras, are jjroduced in quantity, and lie 

 thickly in the bottom of the pot, tub, or 

 border in which they are grown, as a 

 natuial consequence, if stagnant water 

 exists there, rot, causing the unhealthy 

 condition the plants are often seen in. 

 From 9 to 10 inches in depth of soil will lie 

 enough for the roots to ramble in ; it 

 should be moderately rich, and should 



contain enough sand to keep it quite 

 porous. The shoots will require constant 

 attention until they have filled the space 

 they are destined to cover ; keep them 

 trained to the supporting wires, and take 

 care that the lower portion is sufficiently 

 clothed first, or it will be difficult to 

 accomplish this afterwards without cut- 

 ting the plants back, and beginning the 

 work anew by inducing the production of 

 a fresh lot of shoots to cover the space that, 

 in the first instance, they should have been 

 trained over. It should ever be borne 

 in mind in the cultivation of these climb- 

 ing plants, and of such as are of a twining 

 habit, that they have the greatest disin- 

 clination to extend downwards, except in 

 the case of the flowering terminal shoots, 

 which often are found in a liariging posi- 

 tion, but the strong growths made early in 

 the season require, at the least, to be kept 

 iir a horizontal position, and do still better 

 where they can ascend. So ajDparent is 

 this that it may be noticed where a strong 

 shoot happens to lose its hold of the sup- 

 port to which it was clinging, and thus 

 hangs with its point downwards, that it 

 makes little progress afterwards, generally 

 breaking out another growth at the highest 

 point where bent, leaving the pendant por- 

 tion in a half starved, dwindling condition. 

 Were more notice taken of the habit of 

 climbing and twining plants, and their 

 natural requirements in this respect kept 

 before the eye of the cultivator, there 

 would be much fewer failures with them. 

 After the plants have filled the position 

 allotted to tliem, little more trairring will 

 be rec|uired than a regulation of the shoots, 

 so as to prevent their getting entangled in 

 masses, cuttirrg in yearly after the season's 

 growth and flowering are completed. When 

 there is an apparent exhaustion of the soil, 

 it w^ll be best to meet this in two ways — 

 by removing a few inches of the surface in 

 spring before growth commences, replac- 

 ing it with good new material, and also by 

 the use of manure-water, which the plants 

 will take in a somewhat stronger state 

 than weaker-growing suljjects ; by these 

 means they will keep oir in a healthy con- 

 dition for many years. When the roots of 

 Passifloras are confined to pots or tubs, it 

 is necessary that these should be large, and 

 that as much of the surface soil as can be 

 anrrually rerrroved should be replaced with 

 new, well errriched with rotten manure ; 

 this, with the help of manure-water given 

 regularly through the growing season, will 

 keep them in a thriving state for three or 

 four years, when they may be headed 

 back, 'and after they have broken into 

 growth partially shaken out arrd the soil 



