834 THE FLOEAL WORLD AND GAJRDEN GUIDE. 



afforded a gentle bottom -heat, and carefully tended with water. 

 Propagation should be proceeded with as early in the season as 

 circumstances will admit, in order that the plants may be well 

 established before autumn. To effect this, however, the cuttings 

 should be potted as soon as they have become sufficiently rooted to 

 bear handling. After potting, let them be placed near the glass, 

 in a gentle bottom-heat, with a moist, warm, atmosphere. Shade 

 them from the mid-day sun, and keep them growing briskly till late 

 in autumn. On the approach of winter, gradually inure them to a 

 cooler and drier atmosphere, in order to ripen the wood. While at 

 rest afford them a light, airy situation, where the temperature may 

 range from 50° to 6C°, and give very little water to the soil. The 

 plants should now be strong and healthy, and in seven-inch pots ; 

 and if this is not the case, as possibly it may not be, they should be 

 grown on another season in the nursery pit, for it is useless to think 

 of producing a large handi-ome-flowering specimen without a good, 

 strong, healthy plant to commence with. As early in spring as a 

 spare corner in a pit or house, with a gentle bottom-heat, and a 

 moist, warm atmosphere, is at command, where the plants can be 

 kept near the glass, turn them out of their pots, repair the drainage, 

 and clear away all unkind soil, repotting in the same pots, and 

 plunging in a bottom heat of about 80° or 85°. Any sickly points 

 that may happen to be on the shoots, should be cut back to a plump 

 bed, and weakly ones removed altogether, which will throw the sap 

 into the stronger shoots, and those should be kept regularly tied, 

 so as to expose the foliage to light, and induce the buds to break 

 regularly. When growth commences, regulate the shoots so as to 

 induce the buds to break regularly all over the plant, and as soon 

 as active root action has been induced, shift into the blooming pots. 

 Apply the trellis at once, and keep the shoots regularly tied in as 

 they advance in growth, bending the points of any gross one down- 

 wards, which will equalize the growth, and keep them sufficiently 

 thin to admit light and air. Plants, the pots of which are plunged 

 in any warm, moist material, require much less water than if the 

 pots are exposed to a warm dry atmosphere; and as this Dipladenia 

 is very apt to suffer from excess of moisture at the root, water 

 must be applied with care, especially in the case of recently-potted 

 specimens. To give a liberal watering every time the surface soil 

 may appear dry would probably destroy the specimen so treated, 

 and therefore means must be used to ascertain that the ball is 

 really dry before applying water, and when this is the case give a 

 liberal soaking. 



When the trellis, or frame, is well covered with strong, healthy 

 wood, which, if all goes on well, should be the case early in summer, 

 unless the plants exhibit a tendency to produce flowers, remove 

 them from bottom-heat to a rather dry atmosphere, for about a fort- 

 night, and give but very little water at the root, which will check 

 growth, and produce a tendency to bloom, and return them to a 

 warm, moist place, where they will soon be covered with blossom 

 buds. I have already stated that the plant may be removed to a 

 cool conservatory, or greenhouse, when had in bloom in summer; 



