THE FORCING HOUSE. 141 



It is necessary before anything is brought into heat 

 that it should be well established in the pots ; for, if 

 not well rooted before it is introduced into a strong 

 heat, the flowers will suffer, and the plant will fail. 

 For instance, if a Kose is taken up from the ground in 

 November, and ever so carefully potted, and introduced 

 into heat in December, flowers will come upon the 

 plant, but they will be poor, and the plant will pro- 

 bably die in the end. But if a Kose is thoroughly 

 established in the pot fully six months, or, say, from 

 the spring preceding the winter when it is put into 

 heat, fine flowers and a good healthy plant will be the 

 result. So it is with all flowering shrubs, except such 

 as the hardy Azaleas, Ehododendrons, &c., and some of 

 the herbaceous plants ; but then even these should be 

 taken up from the ground with good balls of earth, and 

 carefully potted some weeks previous to forcing. The 

 Narcissus will force moderately by planting the bulbs 

 in the pots, and then introducing them into heat ; but 

 they will do much better if treated after the manner of 

 Hyacinths; that is, pot them and plunge them into 

 cinder ash, sawdust, or some such thing, five or six 

 weeks before they are put into heat. No potted flower- 

 ing plants of a strong feeding nature should be shifted 

 immediately before putting them in heat. 



All well-established plants will be benefited by 

 weekly applications of liquid manure after they begin 

 to show flower buds. Too much heat immediately after 

 plants are introduced into a forcing house is not good ; 

 those recently introduced should at first be placed at the 

 coldest part for a few days or a week. As much light 

 as it is possible to get should be admitted into all forcing 

 houses where there are flowering plants, especially for 



