FORCING FLOWERS AND PLANTS. 171 



season suitable for our purpose. Stocks, convolvulus, coreop- 

 sis, nemopHla, sweet-peas, mignonette, and such like, when 

 once up and thinned in their several pots, can be kept in a 

 cold frame aU the autumn, and removed, a few at a time, into 

 the warmth ; by which means, for the purpose of decorating 

 a conservatory, they could be provided in flower before 

 Christmas, and be continued in succession for many weeks 

 afterwards. 



American plants, such as rhododendrons, azaleas, andro- 

 medas, kahnias, and such like, Persian and Siberian hlacs, 

 Deutzia scabra, Gueldres rose, almonds, double-flowering 

 cherries and peaches, Pyrus spectabilis, honeysuckles, and 

 many other subjects that bloom in a dwarf state, should always 

 be potted the season before, if possible, and be plunged during 

 the first season ; but Americans can be taken up with such a 

 ball of peat to them that they might actually be forced without 

 a pot at all ; and we are not to lose sight of another fact, that 

 it is possible to remove many things without damaging a fibre ; 

 and therefore these things should with great care be taken 

 up the same autumn that they are to be forced. We only 

 speak of ordinary removing, when we say that the flowers 

 will be weaker if they are potted the same season they 

 are forced. Roses cannot be so well managed in a single 

 season ; they -^^ill not force so well the first season as the 

 second, however well they may be managed ; and they ought 

 to go through the ordeal of forcing the first season, and all the 

 buds, as they appear, be taken off; the wood also should be 

 ripened in the forcing-house, or at least kept there until the 

 natural climate out of doors is as forward as that in the house. 



Suppose us, then, in possession of dwarf and other plants, 

 flowers, and all the subjects intended to be forced, they should 

 be all placed in a brick pit, or frames capable of being well 

 protected against frost, as early as the beginning of September. 

 The flowers Mill take no more harm than the shrubs ; all they 

 require is to be kept from damp and frost, and to have all the 

 air they can when it is fine weather. From these stores we 

 have to draw from time to time such as we desii-e to forward. 

 The forcing-house should have a command of heat from forty- 

 five to sixty, and it should always be from five to ten degrees 

 lower at night than by day. Ten degrees of difference is 

 better than five, because the great evil to contend with in 

 forcing plants and flowers is their growth in the dark ; all 



