THE AQUAEIUM, JANUARY, 1894. 



93 



the plants being bent in different desir- 

 able shapes. The next fall they are 

 transplanted to a richer soil and well 

 fertilized. In the following Spring the 

 plants are restaked and twisted and 

 tied in fanciful forms. This mode of 

 treatment is given until the seventh 

 year, when the trees will have assumed 

 fairly large proportions, the branches 

 being trained in graceful forms and the 

 foliage like small clouds of dense green. 

 The plants are now taken up and pot- 

 ted in pots one and one-half feet in 

 diameter, and are kept well watered. 

 Every succeeding year great care must 

 be taken of new shoots, which must be 

 kept pinched back. After another 

 three years of this treatment the trees 

 are virtually dwarfed, there being no 

 visible growth thereafter. 



The dwarfing of bamboo is another 

 imj)ortant branch of the Japanese 

 nursery business. Three weeks after 

 bamboo shoots begin to grow, and 

 when the trunks measure about eight 

 inches in circumference and five feet 

 in height, the bark is removed, piece 

 by piece, from the joint. After five 

 weeks, when the plants get somewhat 

 stout, bend and tie the stem zigzag ; 

 after three months, when the side 

 shoots grow strong enough, cut them 

 all off five or six inches from the main 

 trunk ; they are then dug up and 

 potted in sand ; care should be taken 

 not to use any fertilizer, but plenty of 

 water should be given. Cut off the 

 large shoots every year, in May or 

 June, and after three years the twigs 

 and leaves will present admirable yel- 

 low and green tints. 



Dwarfed Thuyas are effected by 

 means of grafting. Let a Thuya Lobbi 

 seedling grow on fertile soil for three 

 years, or until it becomes about five 

 feet in length ; then in the middle of 



spring cut off all branches, leaving the 

 trunk and top branch ; take a one- 

 quarter inch chisel and hammer it into 

 the thickest portion of the trunk, hol- 

 low out a one-inch deep hole to every 

 two or three -inch space, so that the 

 trunk can be bent more easil}^ in the 

 desired direction ; rice straw is twisted 

 round the trunk, which is bent in many 

 curious forms and fanciful shapes. In 

 spring time of the second year of this 

 treatment the plants are potted in rich 

 soil ; in another two years, when the 

 plants have assumed permanent forms. 

 Thuya obtusa is then grafted on the 

 Lobbi stem. 



The process of grafting is in brief as 

 follows : Apply plenty of fertilizer to 

 the Thuya Lobbi plant ; in early spring 

 take some two-inch shoots of Thuya 

 obtusa, cut the end in a slanting plane, 

 and insert in the smaller portions of the 

 Thuya Lobbi trunk, one graft to every 

 inch on the trunk ; wrap the grafts 

 with rice straw and take the plants to a 

 shady, windless room, with the temper- 

 ature at 35 degrees F. ; increase the 

 temperature one or two degrees daily ; 

 continue this for three weeks ; by this 

 time a little breeze may be admitted, 

 and leave the temperature of the room 

 60 degrees for two weeks and at 70 de- 

 grees for two weeks ; leaves will soon 

 grow from the grafted twigs. In the 

 latter part of spring, when the temper- 

 ature in and out of doors becomes uni- 

 form, the plants can be safely trans- 

 ferred to some shady position out of 

 doors. In the fall, when all the grafts 

 have taken good hold, cut off all the 

 remaining shoots of Thuya Lobbi. 

 Transplant every year in good rich soil ; 

 six years will be sufficient to produce 

 handsome specimens of dwarfed Thuyas. 

 All kinds of conifers are treated in a 

 similar manner. There are also a great 



