136 THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



lights entirely off. Supposing them to be at present in the frame, 

 prepare, in a convenient place, and on a hard bottom, beds of ashes 

 about four feet in width, the length to be regulated by the size of 

 the plot, and the number, by the space required by the plants. 

 Three inches of ashes will suffice to keep the worms out of the 

 pots. Along the centre of the ash-bed, drive into the ground 

 small uprights, standing about two feet above the level, and to these 

 nail strips of wood, to form a continuous line down the bed. These 

 are required for the purpose of laying mats, or other covering 

 across, in case of frost. 



Plants in small pots standing out of doors at this season, require 

 watering twice a day, morning and evening, or the soil becomes 

 dry, the plants suffer, and the growth is stunted. Even if the soil 

 appears in a nice mcist state in the morning, they should have their 

 usual watering, for long before the evening the moisture will be 

 dried up, and it is not good for them to be watered overhead in 

 midday, excepting in dull weather. 



The more tender bedders should be removed to the frames as 

 fast as space can be found for them, and then gradually prepared 

 for full exposure to the weatlier. For the first week or so, keep the 

 frames rather close, and then commence to ventilate freely ; and 

 for a week or so previous to planting, draw the lights off during the 

 day, and also leave them uncovered during the night if the weather 

 is mild. They may, if more convenient, be removed from the frames 

 and be protected with mats at nights, if needful. 



Seedlings of all kinds, including half-hardy annuals, such as 

 stocks and asters, still in the seed-pans, may be made short work of 

 by pricking them out on a shallow bed of soil made upon a bard 

 bottom. The common practice is to prick out on beds of consider- 

 able depth, and, in consequence, the plants produce long and fleshy 

 roots ; and when transplanted to their summer quarters, they suffer 

 severely from the check received. The beds should not be more 

 than two inches deep, and the bottom so hard that the roots cannot 

 penetrate it. In a bed of this kind, they will produce an abund- 

 ance of fibrous roots, which, in a comparatively short space of time, 

 will form a mat, as it were, on the hard bottom, and with but little 

 difiiculty it will be possible to lift them with good balls of soil. 

 Greraniums, verbenas, and bedding plants generally, do exceedingly 

 well in beds prepared as here advised, and move without suffering 

 materially. 



None of the bedders should be allowed to produce flowers until 

 after they are planted out, and the buds should be removed as fast 

 as they make their appearance. Leaf-bedders that require stopping 

 should have the points of the shoots nipped out about a fortnight 

 before planting, and by the time they are put out they will be 

 bristling with young growth, and, in a very short time, will com- 

 mence to grow freely, and quickly cover the bed. It is of special 

 importance to remove the flowers from lobelias, as, when planted 

 out in bloom, they usually commence to produce seed, and are 

 frequently a long time before they take hold of the soil and begin to 

 grow freely. 



