288 



Greenhouse and iStuve Plants 



PLUMBAGO ROSEA. 



bear in mind that this and all other plants 

 that open their flowers during the winter 

 season are better not grown with more heat 

 than is found necessary, for if they are 

 subjected to a temperature higher than 

 requisite the flowers will be of shorter 

 duration on the plant and of less use when 

 out. 



It strikes readily from cuttings which 

 the old plants produce freely if, after 

 blooming, tliey are kept in a temperature 

 of 60° in the night, and a little warmer 

 during the day ; so managed, young shoots 

 will be present in abundance about the 

 beginning of March. Insert them three 

 or four together in 4-inch pots drained 

 and half iilled with a mixture of sandy 

 soil, the remainder all sand ; keep moist, 

 cover with propagating glasses, and let the 

 temperature be a little above that in which 

 the plants have stood to produce the cut- 

 tings. Wlien well rooted move them 

 singly into 3-inch pots, using good ordi- 

 nary loam with some rotten manure and 

 enough sand to keep the whole porous ; 

 pot firmly and do not give much air for a 

 few days until they have begun to root in 

 the new soil, after which inure them to 

 the full air admitted to the house, and 

 place them where they will have plenty of 

 light. Increase the temperature as the 

 sun gets more powerful, and give corre- 

 spondingly more air in the middle of the 

 day ; shade slightly when the sun is very 

 bright, damp overhead with the syringe at 

 the time of shutting the air oft", and when 

 some growth has been made cut out the 

 tops of the shoots, removing three or four 

 joints, for if, in stopping this and other 

 similar erect-habited plants that are little 

 disposed to break back, only just the points 

 are pinched oft', they often merely break a 

 single shoot ; whereas by removing more 

 of the soft top of the shoots two or three 

 breaks will frequently result. By the be- 

 ginning of June move them into 8 or 9 

 inch pots, which will be large enough to 

 grow and flower them in the first year. 

 tJse soil similar to that advised for the 

 first potting, but a little more lumpy in 

 texture ; pot firmly, as with everything of 

 the habit possessed by this plant a loose, 

 insulficiently solidified condition of the 

 soil tends to encourage weak, straggling 

 growth. 



During the summer the plants will do 

 with an ordinary stove temperature ; 

 although able to bear as much heat as 

 most species from the warmest regions of 

 the eastern hemisphere, 65° in the night 

 will answer, with an increase by day pro- 

 portionate to the state of the weather. As 

 soon as fairly established in the larger pots 



stop the shoots again in the manner before 

 advised. All through the sunmier they 

 will do better in a low pit if it gives 

 plenty of light, as here they can be placed 

 nearer the roof than in an ordinary house. 

 This is important with quick-growing 

 plants like this Plumbago, as under such 

 conditions they make shorter - jointed 

 wood, and have always more roots, both 

 of which materially influence their ability 

 to produce flowers. As the days get 

 shorter cease shading, give more air, and 

 do not syringe overhead ; this is necessary 

 to induce a slower formation of growth 

 and to solidify that which has been made 

 through the season. The plants may 

 be divided so that bloom may be had in 

 succession ; those intended to come in 

 first should, about the middle of October, 

 be moved into the stove where a night 

 temperature of 60° or over, and a little 

 higher in the daytime, can be kept up. 

 Stand them so that the tops of the shoots 

 will be within a few inches of the roof- 

 glass — the nearer to it the better, if not 

 absolutely touching ; if the pots are very 

 full of roots, a little weak manure-water 

 once a week will be an advantage. Give 

 as much air in the middle of fine days as 

 the other occupants of the house will bear, 

 and do not use more atmospheric moisture 

 than needful, as the drier it is within 

 reasonable limits the stouter the flowers 

 will be. The plants intended to succeed 

 the first must not be kept too cool ; they 

 slujuld not remain where they will be 

 below 55° by night, or the roots are liable 

 to sufter, in which case the blooms will be 

 weak and small in quantity. After the 

 first crop of floM-ers produced from the 

 points of the shoots is over, if the plants 

 are strong they will break back and push, 

 a second lot from the base of the leaves on 

 the upper portions of the shoots. When 

 the flowering is over give less water to the 

 roots, and keep the plants for a time in a 

 doimant state, after which they may be 

 started into growth in the Avay already de- 

 scribed to produce cuttings, or, if it is de- 

 sired to grow them on another season, they 

 may as soon as broken into growth have 

 the soil partially shaken from the old balls, 

 be repotted in fresh material, and grown 

 on as in the preceding summer. When 

 required for planting out so as to cover a 

 pillar or wall in the May alluded to at the 

 commencement, these one-year-old plants 

 will best answer the pui'pose, as if planted, 

 as they necessarily need to be in such 

 situations, at some distance fi'om the glass, 

 newly-struck examples have a tendency to 

 become drawn ujj and weak. When this 

 Plumbago is to be grown in this way it 



