The Azalea and its Varieties. 459 



from each other ; or, which will be better still, cover an old 

 melon or cucumber bed with six inches of peat earth and 

 loam, such as the bed for azaleas is comppscd of, and the 

 surface will be thus raised half way up the wood frame ; 

 when this has been properly levelled, the little plants may be 

 planted out three inches apart all over the surface ; and the 

 advantage of this will be, that they can be effectually covered 

 against frost all through the winter, and when they commence 

 their spring growth, which will be earlier than those out of 

 doors altogether ; and they can also be shaded, if necessary, 

 from the mid-day sun when the season advances. Here they 

 may have their second season's growth, and towards the 

 autumn the glass may be taken off, and they may have all 

 the weather, heat, wet, and whatever little cold there may 

 be. The plants will drop their leaves ; and now, any time 

 before Christmas, they may be removed from this bed with 

 all the earth about their roots that they can be taken up with, 

 and planted out in one of the regular beds, in the open air, 

 six inches apart all over ; or, if further removal is to be 

 avoided, they may be placed nine inches or a foot apart at 

 once. But these plants are none the worse for an annual or 

 biennial remove, and therefore we should plant them only 

 six inches apart all over the bed. 



It has been the common practice among even large growers 

 to let seedlings remain in a crowded state until they exhibited 

 their bloom, because, unless they were very good, they would 

 not be worth naming or propagating ; but as all seedlings 

 would be saleable as common plants when grown handsome, 

 they should remain six inches apart only one year, or season ; 

 they may even then be only thinned instead of removed, 

 and so only so many taken away as would leave them a foot 

 apart, while those removed might be planted a foot apart in 

 other beds. Here they may grow till they bloom, when 

 those which are superior should be carefully marked with 

 labels and descriptions of their qualities, while those which 

 present nothing particularly striking may be given away, or 

 sold, as common things for common planting ; or if there be 

 any distant borders or plantations where they can be planted 



