THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



139 



staking, keep the stakes behind the plant or branches to keep them 

 out of sight a little. A pot of annuals, sucti as mignonette, may have 

 four small stakes round the pot at equal distances, and small twine 

 looped round them to keep the plants up. Primulas or Chinese 

 primroses, having slender necks, should have three little pins round 

 their necks to keep them steady. Calceolarias will require every 

 flowering branch staked to make handsome specimens, but four stakes 

 the same as recommended for mignonette will do. Hyacinths and 

 tulips are better staked with wire than wooden stakes, as it does not 

 look so clumsy for such beautiful flowers. 



Plants of a trailing habit, such as clematis, petunias, tropa?olums, 

 ivy-leaved geraniums, and many others, always look best trained 

 over wire globes or trellis-work, as represented by the figures below. 

 Ivy -leaved geraniums especially make a beautiful window-screen when 

 grown in a box in your window and trained over an ornamental wire 



WIEE PLANT THATNEIJ3. 



trellis fixed firmly to the box. Try this, and you will find what a 

 pretty window screen it makes. 



To keep your plants in Bhape, if a strong shoot threatens to spoil 

 the outline of your specimen, pinch the point off and it will throw 

 out side-shoots to keep the proper shape. Toung plants of geraniums, 

 fuchsias, etc., that you want to branch out and make bushy specimens, 

 must have their leading shoots treated in the same way. 



You can make very nice flower stakes out of common laths, but 

 I think it would be far better to purchase ihem from a seedsman 

 ready made. You can get them from ninepence to three shillings 

 per 100, according to lengths of from one foot to three and a half feet. 

 A bundle of 100 would last you for years, and they are always at 

 hand when required. 



Staking plants should be done neatly, and room enough left in 

 tying for the stems to swell. If it is a quick-growing plant, leave the 



May. 



