84 ON THE CULTIVATION OF THK SOLANDRA GRANDIFLORA. 



hand Uic otlicr day, I observed in the first Number amongst other 

 Queries, what is the best method of cultivating the Solandra Gran- 

 diflora, so as to bloom it well ; and seeing no answer to it in the 

 second Number, I beg to offer to your Correspondent, throiigh the 

 medium of your Magazine, my mode of proceeding with two 

 plants, one of which is under my care. About ten years ago I 

 received cuttings of the Solandra Grandiflora, which I found of 

 very easy propagation, rooting readily in moist heat, after having 

 struck root. 1 selected two of the finest plants, whicli I potted 

 singly into small pots, in a rich light soil, in which they flourished 

 very freely, running with one stem somewhat similar to the young 

 shoot of a vine. The following Spring the plants were potted 

 into larger pots, and one of the two plants was cut down to within 

 eighteen inches of the pot, which soon after sent out seven or eight 

 shoots from the sides of the stem ; afterwards being kept rather 

 dry. it flowered the following year hi March, on the ends of the 

 branches, and it has every year since produced from ten to sixteen • 

 of its showy flowers, measuring nine inches long, and four inches 

 across the cup. The same plant at present remains in a good 

 state of health, of a bushy shrub-like appearance. When the 

 flower buds make their appearance, the plant is watered rather 

 freely, with the view of making it throw out abundance of flowering 

 shoots for the next season ; when these shoots grow more tlum two 

 or three inches in length, water is immediately withheld, and any 

 shoots that may have run longer than the others are cut back to 

 two or three inches long to make them produce more flowering 

 branches for the next year. The other plant n:ientioned that was 

 left nncut, was trained to a trellis in a pine stove, and regularly 

 watered when dry for several years, which no doubt was the cause 

 of its great luxuriance of growth, but it produced no flowers. 



I subsequently tried it by keeping it very dry for several years, 

 bill never was favoured with so much as one flower for my tiouble, 

 ;md it was eventually thrown out. 



if you think the above mode of treatment desen ing publicity, 

 I shall have much pleasure in seeing it inserted in the Magazine, 



W. K. 



