The Azalea and its Varieties. 455 



PLANTING THE AZALEA. 



According to the size of the plants you must manage your 

 distances from each other. When collections are purchased, 

 they are generally one year old from the layers ; and as we 

 propose to give directions for raising young plants, we may 

 as well treat these in the same way. Small plants, then, may 

 be placed a foot apart, that is, four in a row across these beds, 

 the outside ones being six inches from the path, and the 

 others a foot distant from the outside ones ; they will have 

 plenty of room for a year or two to come ; the rows may 

 also be a foot from each other. These plants must be well 

 watered in, and the earth settled about their roots. When 

 they begin to grow in spring, unless there is plenty of rain, 

 let the beds be liberally watered ; and this must be attended 

 to until they make all their growth and set for bloom, which 

 they will always do from the first year, after being separated 

 from the parent plant. When the bloom is set they may 

 have the chance of rain, but no more watering. In this 

 way the plants may remain until they touch each other, when 

 they must be removed to a greater distance, by placing them 

 two across the bed, or even three across, instead of four. 

 Whenever these plants are removed, they ought to be taken 

 up with all their roots about them, and without disturbing 

 the earth that is about their fibres. The holes, therefore, 

 for their reception, must be large enough to take in the ball 

 of earth and all the fibres without disturbing them ; and they 

 must, after being trodden in well, be well watered, to close 

 the earth about their roots. 



When the plants are to be placed in a mixed plantation, 

 where they are to remain, there must be spots prepared in 

 the same way as the" beds ; that is to say, holes eighteen 

 inches deep must be dug out, as large in diameter as the plant 

 is supposed to require, namely, from two to three feet, and 

 filled up with the compost already mentioned for the beds. 

 Into these holes the peat soil is to be conveyed, and, besides 

 being filled to the surface, must be watered in, to settle it 

 down solid, so that, after planting, the soil may be above the 

 surface in a sort of hillock. Here the plants, of the size 



