ON BLANCHING FLOWERS IN THE FLOWER GARDEN. 37 



planted one of each sort, good strong plants, in a half peck pot with 

 a good quantity of drainage. After three parts filling with soil, I 

 placed on the top a layer of nearly fresh cow-dung, on which I planted, 

 filling up with a little soil. I watered twice a week with a solution 

 of guana (say about a small handful to a gallon of water) : the growth 

 of the plants was beyond any thing I could conceive ; many of the 

 leaves were four inches and a quarter long, and three inches wide, 

 the blooms were splendid and almost numberless. 



ARTICLE VII. 



ON BLANCHING FLOWERS IN THE FLOWER-GARDEN. 



BY Mil. PETER MACKENZIE, WEST PLE.VN, NEAR STIRLING. 



The kitchen gardener has operations to perform that seldom fall to 

 the lot of the flower gardener to do. Some of the vegetables of the 

 garden have to undergo the process of blanching before they can be 

 used. Celery and seakale, and other plants used as salads, require 

 whitening before they are eaten. I am not aware if the blanching 

 of flowers be much practised, in order to increase the beauty and 

 variety of the flower-garden, and yet it can be done to a certain 

 extent. Some persons may be ready to exclaim, " Why destroy the 

 paintings of nature, which show forth the workings of an infinite 

 mind?" but perhaps there is as little harm in depriving a few 

 flowers of their rosy hue, that the eye may be gratified, as there is in 

 blanching celery, that the taste may be pleased. In the spring every 

 flower is welcome, however lowly or inconspicuous it may be ; and 

 in small gardens where flowers may not be numerous, perhaps the 

 following notice, if acted upon, may increase the pleasure of those 

 who may not have room to grow as many flowers as they would 

 wish. 



The Erica herbacea is a common plant in most flower-gardens, 

 and also an early flowerer ; its flowers are red in general, yet they 

 may be made white without injuring the leaves of the plant or the 

 flower. Part of the plant may be covered with light earth, before 

 the flowers have any red colour, and the covered part may remain 

 until the flowers of the uncovered part are fully out. When the 

 earth is taken off, it will be found that the corollas have increased in 

 size, equal to those that were exposed, but, iustead of being red like 



