230 TREATMENT OF THE INDIAN AZALEAS. 



Bernard and Rose du Roi are as good in proportion : those of Spong's 

 rose are more like plants two years' bedded in the open ground ; and 

 some of the Persian yellows are remarkably fine. I use the same soil 

 for all my otiier roses whicli I grow in pots ; and every year convinces 

 me more, tiiat they like a purer soil than is generally given to them. 

 The Hybrid Perpetual Roses will not require potting till the end of 

 October. 



The kinds most suitable for early forcing, and which require one 

 season's preparation, are : — 



3Toss : Common, Blush, White Bath, Pompone, Grandiflora, Mal- 

 vina, Unique de Provence. Provence : Artimese, Common Cabbage, 

 Cristata, Spong's De Meux, Unique Paiiachee, Monstrous. The fol- 

 lowing force exceedingly well, but are not very eaidy : — 



Damask Perpetual : Bernard, Magador, Rose du Roi. Austrian 

 Briar : Ilarrisonii, Persian Yellow. Isle de Bourbon : Acidalie, 

 Bouquet de Flore, Desgaches, Souchet. Tea-scented : Smith's Yellow, 

 Devoniensis, Moire, Comte de Paris, Elize Sauvage, Bougere, Yellow 

 China, Lord Carnarvon. Hybrid Perpetuals all force well, but the 

 following are unrivalled for this purpose: — Baron Prevost, William 

 .lessee, Robin Hood, La Reine, Earl Talbot, Dr. Marx, Clementine 

 Duval, Clementine Seringe, Lady Alice Peel, Madame Damene, 

 Rivers' Madame Laffay, Duchess of Sutherland, Lilace, Mrs. Elliott, 

 Louis Bonaparte, Comtesse Duchatel. 



TREATMENT OF THE INDIAN AZALEAS. 



BY MR. JAMES M'ALDRON, OF CROW HAXL, SURREY. 



A FEW months back I noticed some remarks on the cultivation of the 

 Azalea indica were inserted. As I have never seen plants grow 

 healthier, and bloom more vigorously than those under my care, I for- 

 ward tiie particulars for insertion in your Florists' Magazine, confident it 

 will prove useful to those who may follow the same mode of treatment. 

 Two seasons ago I commenced with plants half a foot high, grown 

 in three-inch pots. I excited them to grow by placing them in a stove. 

 I stopped every slioot as it grows at the second or third eye ; this induces 

 all the eyes to break regularly, by which means I have a compact sym- 

 metrical plant. I give very liberal shifts in a compost of well decom- 

 posed cow manure, leaf-moulii, turfy peat, loam, and sand, using nearly 

 equal portions of eacli. The first shift from a 3-incli pot is into a 6-inch 

 pot; from that into a 12-inch, and so on in proportion to the size of 

 tiie plant. Wlien they have got a little established in their pots I 

 remo\e them into a vinery, where they have a temperature of from 65^ 

 to 70^ Here they receive the same treatment as the vines, using the 

 syringe constantly to the undersides of their leaves. I continue to pot, 

 &c., and to finger and thumb prune throughout the whole of the 

 growing season. My maxitu the firf.t season is to form the foundation of 

 a good specimen. I discard the thought of flowering the first season's 

 growth. In the next season I start them into growth in my usual way, 

 paying due attention to stopping ; and when the roots have got nicely 



