ON EXHIBITING CARNATIONS, &¢., WITH CARDS. 63 
off a week or ten days before the time for exhibition, and the eut being 
made rather near the flower will soon be covered by the bloom, and a 
dense spike of flowers be obtained. A collection of these noble flowers 
ought to be in every garden. Some of the stalks of fine varieties 
should be cut down as soon as the bloom ceases, or even before, in 
order to cause the production of shoots around the stem at the bottom, 
either to furnish stems for the following year’s blooming, or to prove 
shoots for a division of the plant in autumn. The Hollyhock blooms 
the best in the second year from planting out. 
WINTERING SALVIA PATENS AND SIMILAR PLANTS. 
BY J. H. 
Ler a dry day be chosen to take up the plants, and let the tops be cut 
off and the soil shaken from their roots. Lay them for a few days in 
a shed to dry, and having procured a box or old tub sufficiently large 
to hold the roots when packed closely, get some dry sandy peat, finely 
broken : a layer of the roughest of this, about an inch thick, should be 
laid at the bottom of the box ; the roots may then be packed as closely 
as possible in layers, and the spaces between each filled with peat. 
When the box is full, give it a good shaking, and press it well down 
with the hands, to stop up all the cavities ; finally covering the whole 
about two inches thick with the rough part of the peat. The box may 
then be removed to a cellar or other convenient place, secure from 
frost, where it may remain without any further care until the following 
spring. In the same manner, Fuchsias, scarlet Pelargoniums, weakly 
Dahlia roots, and similar plants, may be preserved through the winter. 
It must, however, be observed that scarlet Pelargoniums, Fuchisias, 
&c., will require to be taken out of the boxes much sooner in the 
spring than Salvia patens. 
ON EXHIBITING CARNATIONS, &., WITH CARDS. 
; BY AN OLD CARNATION GROWER. 
I wAVE observed an article in a contemporary publication in which it 
is insisted that Carnations and Picotees should be shown on cards, 
stating, they can be as easily judged, and as it saves the exhibitor 
trouble, the matter should be so decided. Now without saying a word 
against the indolence that would suggest such a sacrifice of the beauties 
of a flower to save a little trouble, I will take leave through the 
medium of your pages to remind those growers or exhibitors who 
advocate the plan, that there are hundreds of old and first-rate florists 
who ,have over and over again decided that Pinks, Carnations, and 
Picotees should hold themselves in their proper posture without the 
aid of ties or cards, or any other artificial support, and a split pod or a 
falling guard-petal, or a tie on one flower in a stand should disqualify 
the whole. But, further, I deny the assumed facts that the flowers can 
be judged as well, or as quickly. If the rules, that a flower shall be 
fresh, the petals stand out well, without any artificial support, and that 
