148 REMARKS ON FUCHSIAS. 



ARTICLE III. 



REMARKS ON FUCHSIAS. 



BY AN ARDENT AMATEUR CULTIVATOR OV FLOWERS. 



About thirty years ago a plant of the old and well-known Fuchsia 

 coccinea came into my possession, and then hecame a pet plant with 

 me, and so continued till the production of some hybrids eclipsed it 

 in colours and size. 



The attention given to importing new species, and the intermixture 

 productions raised in this country, have rendered the entire family 

 one of the most interesting of what are termed floral plants. 



Two years since I planted out in the open ground fifty kinds. I put 

 them out in a raised border, a foot higher than the walk in front, 

 sloping gradually down to it, the soil being a sandy loam. I had them 

 placed in two rows, the first being plants grown as bushes, and the 

 back row consisted of standards, each about from three to four feet 

 high. Many of these had been formed by grafting fine kinds upon 

 the stocks of older ones, many of which I had possessed for years 

 previously. 



They united readily either in tongue or cleft grafting, or in-arched. 

 The border was in the pleasure-ground, had a south aspect, and a 

 fine dense back of common laurel and yew, which formed an admir- 

 able shelter. The border contained roses, both dwarfs and dwarf 

 standards, the same height as the Fuchsias. I planted them alter- 

 nately along ; and, when in bloom, they were a most interesting and 

 beautiful sight, and continued to bloom from June to the end of Oc- 

 t )ber. At the latter period I took up all the standard Fuchsias, 

 keeping some soil to the roots, and placed them, closely pressed 

 together, in a shallow box, filling up between the balls of roots with 

 good soil, and tying the tops (erect) together. I kept them through 

 the winter under the stage in a dry greenhouse, and when the first 

 effort to push in spring commenced, I replanted them out in their 

 positions in the border. The bush Fuchsias I left in the border 

 through winter, without cutting down the tops; for J had discovered 

 that, if cut off before winter, the hollows of the stems become filled 

 with water in winter: the frost operating, &c, causes the shoots to 

 rot and die, and the plants are generally destroyed through it. 



In November I covered to the extent of two feet around each bush, 



