416 GAHDEN MANAGEMENT. 



gritty sand. When recently potted, they require a close pit or the warm part 

 of a greenhouse, and cautious watering at the roots, until they get into free 

 growth. When thoroughly established, water with clear liquid manure twice 

 a week. 



1238. Chorozemas are propagated by cuttings of the half- ripened young 

 vrood, taken off in July or August, taking the short, stiff, and weak or medium 

 growth, but avoiding twigs of a robust habit. These, after being trimmed, 

 should be about one inch long, and must be inserted in sand, under protection 



•of a bulb-glass. In preparing the pots for the cuttings, take care to drain 

 thoroughly, by half filling them with potsherd ; then place fibrous peat about 

 an inch deep over the drainage, and fill up with clean sand. After the cuttings 

 are in, place the pot in a close cold-frame, water when necessary, and wipe 

 the condensed moisture from the inside of the glass twice or thrice a week. 

 Here the cuttings must remain until they are cicatrized, when they may be 

 removed to a warmer situation, and the pots plunged in a \evy slight bottom- 



",heat, and in a few weeks they will be ready to pot off. If it is late in the 

 season before the cuttings are ready to pot off, they should remain in the 

 cutting-pot through the winter, and be potted off in February ; but if they 

 .are ready for single pots in September, they will be much benefitted by being 

 potted off early. 



1239. If you have selected dwarf, healthy, bushy, well-rooted specimens, 

 .prepare the following compost : — Eich fibrous peat, two parts ; leaf-mould, one 

 -part ; rich txirfy loam, two parts ; clean potsherd and charcoal, broken to the 



size of horse-beans, one part ; with sufl&cient gritty sand to make the whole 

 when mixed light and porous. Having prepared this compost, examine the 



■ roots of the plant, and if they are strong and health}", prepare a pot two sizes 

 larger, and proceed to pot the plants, placing some of the roughest part of 



-the compost over the drainage, and fill up with the finer soil. 



1240. After potting, place them in a close frame or pit, taking care to venti- 

 late freely ; but keep a moist atmosphere, and shut up for an hour or two every 

 ■evening, and open it again before retiring for the night. Attention must be 

 •paid to stopping the rude shoots, so as to induce close, compact, and healthy 



growth. If the plants progress as they ought to do, they ^vill reqmre a second 

 shift during the season. The plants should be kept growing untU the winter 

 fairly sets in, at which time they should be brought to a state of rest. In the 

 second year some of the plants will produce a nice head of bloom ; but in 

 order to produce rapid growth, remove the bloom-buda when quite young, and 

 •keep the plants vigorously gi-owing thi'ough the second season. If the plant 

 is in good health and the pot full of roots, a shift any time between Christmas 

 .and October will not hurt it ; but never shift a plant until the pot is full of 

 vigorous roots, and take especial care that the roots do not become matted 

 before you shift. 



1 241. Manure-water in a weak state may be used with advantage ; but use it 

 with caution, and not more than twice a week. That prepared from sheep's 



•^ung and soot is best, and it 7m'.st be used in a perfectly clear stata 



