MONTHLY CALENDAK. SIS' 



one inch of hard drainage in the bottom, then an inch of rough leaf-mould, Ih 

 inch of light soil, and half an inch of sand over all. Press down firm, water, 

 leave to settle, and then insert three rows of fifteen cuttings, or forty-five in 

 each box, and place in the bright sun until they are rooted. They will only 

 require water, weeding, and picking over, until they are housed for the winter. 

 Keep them dryish during that period, and, if you can afford space and pots, 

 remove them into single pots in February or March ; but if not, keep them as 

 cool as possible ; harden them off early in the spring ; remove the boxes to 

 the flower-beds in showery weather in May, and they will often succeed bet- 

 ter, and grow more kindly, than those that have been coddled up in pots, 

 &c. &c., for months. But I have not yet told you how to transfer them, for 

 you must not plant the boxes far asunder, as they will serve the same purpose 

 for five or six years ; and although I like thick planting, forty-five plants 

 (you have no business to lose one) to the 300 square inches would be too much 

 of a right good thing. Well, then, unhook the movable end, place a spade, 

 cold chisel, or screw-driver under, to prise it off the bottom studs, and then 

 pause a minute to admire that mass of I'oots ; run the spade along the bottom 

 of the box, bringing up drainage and all together in one solid mass ; break 

 the soil to pieces with your hands, leaving a lump of roots and soil about two 

 inches square to each ; carefully plant, leaving the roots dispersed throughout 

 the soil, and not twisted round into a small hole like a wisp of straw ; water 

 well as you proceed, and my word for it each plant will have begun to grow- 

 before you can get the next one inserted. 



i.g'Z^. This plan is more economical in labour, space, first cost, and 

 working, than pots. Where these are not primary objects, the single plant in 

 pot system has a good deal to recommend it in the greater safety with which 

 the plants can be transferred to the ground in dry weather, without the risk 

 of check. Neither does the box system answer so well for anything except 

 gei'aniums, ageratums, and the Lobelia fulgens class. 



1926. I could not succeed with petunias nor verbenas in boxes. Gazania 

 splendeiis, I almost forgot to say, did well in boxes. I have tried many dif- 

 ferent sizes of pots and pans for verbenas. I have found nothing so useful or 

 successful as a score of cuttings in a 4S-sized pot. The pots are filled one- 

 third full of drainage, one inch of rough leaf-mould over it ; then fill to within 

 1.^ inch of the top with equal parts of loam, leaf-mould, or peat and sand, 

 finishing with half an ixith of sand ; insert the cuttings in the usual manner, 

 making sure that the hase of the cutting is made firm. Water heel — a point 

 of great moment in excluding the air from the part where roots are to be 

 emitted, as well as in the future watering of the cuttings, — and the work is. 

 finished. Verbenas are also best left in the store or cutting-pots until 

 February ; and, unlike calceolarias, if enough is kept over the winter for 

 stock, spring-struck plants are best both for growth and flower. This last 

 remark is equally applicable to petunias, ageratums, lobelias, &c. Verbenas 

 and other soft-wooded plants may also be struck in water ; but I see 

 no benefit whatever in the j^ractice. I may also state, for the very few 



