4 MODE OF CULTIVATING THE TROrEOLUM TUBEROSUM. 



ARTICLE III. 



ON A SUCCESSFUL MODE OF CULTIVATING THE TROP^OLUM 



TUBEROSUM. 



BY Jilt. JOHN FYFFE, OF HILTON BRYANT. 



Having completed my experiment with Tropreolum Tuberosum, I 

 now lay before you the simple process pursued. The species tube- 

 rosum, when treated in the usual way by planting the tubers, grows 

 very luxuriant, covering a space of several feet if trained against a 

 wall, or forming a handsome bush if trained to a few branches, such 

 as the common pea stake. What is complained of by most culti- 

 vators is, its rampant habit and shyness of flowering. Tiie mode 

 which I have adopted is simply this : When the plant has arrived 

 at that stage of growth before or after it shows flower in the axil of 

 the leaf (which is late in the autumn, so much so, that it seldom 

 blooms before it is cut off by the frost), I take the points off the 

 shoots three or four inches, cutting them close to a joint, and insert 

 them in cutting pots well drained, containing a mixture of sand, 

 leaf-mould, and loam ; these will partially strike root before spring ; 

 some of them may form tubers if put in early, and in most cases the 

 tops or cuttings will remain without dying down to the surface 

 of the pot. These are potted off into sixty sized pots early in the 

 spring, when they make good plants to turn out by the end of Maj- 

 or beginning of June. The plants so treated I find flower much 

 sooner than those, raised from the old tubers, as it is a sort of check 

 on their luxuriant habit. To be convinced of its certainty, I planted, 

 last spring, plants raised from cuttings in the way I have described 

 against a wicker fence in an exposed situation, and also plants 

 raised from tubers against a boarded fence with a warm south 

 aspect ; the former have been in full flower for this month back, 

 the. latter have but a few flowers fully expanded. I have but to add 

 to these few observations, that although convinced they may be the 

 means of bringing this species into flower sooner, the habit of 

 the plant is quite different from Tropaeolum Pentaphyllum, which 

 will flower even in the cutting pot ; Tropaeolum Tuberosum, on the 

 other hand, seems to complete its growth before it comes fully into 

 a flowering state. 

 I Milton Bryant, Nov. 18, 1839. 





