194 CALENDAR [j>T. 



During the opening days of April the main sowing of 

 hardy annuals should be made; in the closing week 

 half-hardy kinds may be put in. But the more satis- 

 factory way is to raise all but the very hardy annuals 

 in pans and boxes under glass, with some bottom heat, 

 moving them into a cooler frame and pricking out into 

 nursery beds. Stocks and Asters may be treated in this 

 way. 



Cuttings may be made of Fuchsias, Heliotropes, 

 Salvias, Verbenas, Petunias, and sweet-scented Geraniums, 

 in this way plant them firmly in pots, half-filled with 

 sandy loam, and plunged in a gentle heat, covering the pot 

 with a pane of glass to exclude the air ; or it may be 

 plunged in a larger pot, and kept in a sitting-room, wiping 

 the glass occasionally. Shoots of Tea or China Roses, 

 or sweet-scented Verbena taken off close to the old 

 wood, 3 or 4 inches long, put in carefully, will strike 

 freely, and make good plants before the end of the 

 summer. 



The old roots of Dahlias may yet be laid into the 

 hot-bed, and covered' with light soil. As soon as the 

 young shoots are 3 inches long, they may be cut off with 

 some of the old tuber, put into small pots, and plunged 

 in the same hot-bed ; or the tubers may be started under a 

 south wall, or in a box, and divided into as many pieces 

 as there are shoots, before finally planting them in the 

 border. 



Mignonette for pot culture may be sown in thumb-pots, 

 thinned out to two or three plants, and repotted (never 



