HOW TO GROW SPECIMEN PLANTS. 301 



only such as will help to make a handsome plant, we 

 may allow the growth to go on till they bloom ; but after 

 flowering, the plant requires pruning as regularly as a 

 wall fruit tree, and the new shoots must be watched and 

 regulated, and the same provision made for the beauty 

 and symmetry of shrub as was made in the first instance. 

 Were the plant left to itself, and planted in a rich soil, 

 it could be made to grow six or eight feet in a single 

 season, and be altogether unmanageable in a season or 

 two, because the bloom only comes at the end of the 

 branches, and the long under portions are both leafless 

 and flowerless. If a plant has thus, through neglect, 

 become shapeless and unmanageable, the evil is past 

 cure ; the best thing to do is, to root cuttings and 

 throw away the old plant ; pruning would not remedy 

 the evil, for eyes break reluctantly on old wood, and 

 seldom with any regularity. To grow Heaths, as speci- 

 mens, requires great care, and the study of the habit of 

 the species. Some, like Epacris, run up to great length 

 of branches ; therefore, before we allow them to shoot 

 their full length, we must, by stopping, secure plenty 

 of them. In this one thing lies, also, the secret of 

 growing fine specimens of epacris. 

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