The Treattnent of the Fuchsia. 445 



Art. IY. The Treatment of the Fuchsia^ for Summer Green- 

 house and Conservatory. By Geo. C. Thorbukn, Astoria, 

 New York. 



My fuchsias have been excellent this year, and it is remark- 

 able so little interest is manifested for them. From the middle 

 of Juiie till this time, (of course, noiv on the wane,) have had 

 one continued mass of bloom, and such immense plants, and 

 all young, of but one season's growth. Did our friends gen- 

 erally take the interest in them their great beauty deserves, 

 they would adorn every summer greenhouse^ and, instead of 

 empty stages, or bare shelves and pits, have these lovely plants 

 tastefully arranged wide apart to show off their graceful 

 branches, and more graceful pendant racemes of every hue 

 of crimson, rose, and white, from the pretty "(7e/«ca^a" of a 

 chandelier-like habit, densely covered with its white and rosy 

 purple corolled flowers, to the robust " Coralina^^'' literally load- 

 ed with its magnificent progeny of dazzling crimson and bright 

 purple ; they are no longer confined to a sameness of red and 

 crimson, but have, by the commendable interest taken in them 

 in England and France, been improved into as many light 

 colors as among modern dahlias \ Acantha, Delicata, Clara, 

 Exquisite, Napoleon, (a splendid large white, with purple 

 corolla,) Lady Milbank, &c., interspersed with Conqueror, 

 Eneas, Zenobia, and others, form as pleasing a variety of 

 color as can be desired ; nor have I found difiiculty in finding 

 customers who give ^2 and $3 for specimen plants, as were, 

 indeed, all my collection. 



I have found the most successful treatment thus : — In Feb- 

 ruary, during the height of my dahlia propagation, I bring 

 my stock plants out of their resting winter quarters in rear of 

 the greenhouse, and place them among the dahlias in the prop- 

 agation-house, temperature 70° to 76°; here they soon shoot 

 forth, and, when two or three joints length, place them in 

 sand pots under bells, and, in some twelve to fourteen days, 

 they are all rooted. I then pot them ofl" in a mixture of leaf 

 mould, a little peat, and liberally mixed with sod, loam, and 

 decomposed manure from an old hotbed; in another fortnight, 

 they will make a ball of roots in this compost ; shift again 



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