124 ON DEPRIVING PLANTS OF THEIR EARLY FLOWER-BUDS. 



blossoms, they present a picture of floral beauty. Many are the plants 

 that present a stunted or straggling appearance that, by like treat- 

 ment, might be caused to assume the same symmetrical keeping. 

 The Dahlia, too, (this is ticklish ground,) might, I think, be much 

 improved in the quality of its blossom, whether for the border or as 

 a show flower, if, instead of the unsparing lopping away of its 

 branches, these were carefully preserved, and the blossom-buds more 

 fully displaced ; this is borne out by the Chrysanthemum and many 

 other plants, rom which, in order to produce fine blooms, we remove 

 most of the flower-buds, while we scrupulously preserve every particle 

 of foliage. I shall pass from this Leviathan of flowers to the more 

 modest but equally well-known Mignionette. How to produce the 

 tree is, I believe, generally understood ; but as it will exemplify the 

 subject, I will merely glance at the practice of depriving its leading 

 shoot of its flower-bud ; it is again surmounted by another shoot, 

 from which the flower is again displaced ; the same routine goes on 

 till the plant has reached the prescribed height, when it is allowed to 

 shoot freely, and it is clothed with its fragrant bloom. By a very 

 similar treatment, the Verbenas may be made either to spread with 

 greater luxuriance on the ground, to trail over the vase, or to climb 

 the trellis ; for any of these purposes we have only to persevere in 

 removing the flower- buds, from time to time, as they are produced, 

 and new shoots will be emitted, elongating to a considerable exteut, 

 at the same time multiplying in number so as to cover a much greater 

 space. If these be allowed to fall negligently over a vase, or be 

 carefully entwined round a trellis, attached to a large flower-pot, the 

 effect will be in either case exceedingly ornamental. The Anagallis, 

 Petunia, Heliotrope, and various other plants, if subjected to a like 

 training, are capable of the same effect. The Heliotrope I once saw 

 trained round a pillar in a greenhouse eight feet high, clothed with 

 flowers from nearly the bottom to the top. Thunbergias, Mauran- 

 dias, Rhodachitons, and the whole race of dwarf climbers, will be 

 much improved in growth by removing, as soon as visible, the early 

 flower-buds. If the. Balsam be allowed to expand its first flush of 

 buds, the blossoms will neither be so large or so double as they will 

 if the early buds be plucked off. This will create a more luxuriant 

 development of the plant, and the succeeding buds will be produced 

 all over the plant in the greatest abundance, covering it with a pro- 



