CULTURE OF WINTER FLOWERING PLANTS. 145 



lis. Its pure white flowers and delicious fragrance make 

 it much prized at all seasons. 



DOUBLE BALSAMS. 



If sown in August and potted into 6 or 7-inch pots, 

 in light, a-arm hot-houses, these will flower until the holi- 

 days. 



BMNONIA VENUSTA AND JASMINOIDES. 



These are ^reen-house climbers, which only do well as 

 permanent rafter plants, usually not flowering until they 

 are two or three years old ; by that time, however, they 

 usually cover the rafters to a length of 20 or 30 feet. B. 

 venusta is bright orange; B. jasminoides is purple and 

 white, and its flowers are formed in immense clusters and 

 are extensively used during winter. The colors of both, 

 although entirely different, are also unlike our usual colors 

 of flowers. 



HYACINTHS. 



Hyacinths are used quite extensively in the late winter 

 months, but are not generally obtainable in good condi- 

 tion before February, as, to give them justice, they re- 

 quire to be kept a considerable time at a rather low tem- 

 perature to form their roots. Potted in September or Oc- 

 tober and plunged so as to exclude the bulb from the 

 light in a cellar or under the stage of the green-house, or 

 any similar place they will form roots in abundance in six 

 or eight weeks, when they may be removed and placed on 

 the stage of the green-house to flower. 



MIGNONETTE AND SWEET ALYSSUM. 



Sown in August in a <3old frame and thinned out so 

 that the plants will stand 6 or 8 inches apart, and left 

 without the covering of the sash until frost is expected in 

 September or October, these will flower abundantly until 



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