FOURTH WEEK IN JANUARY 



the autumn, and in a cool greenhouse in winter, half their 

 difficulties will cease, and, when once cleansed, they can be 

 kept clean. 



At Torquay oleanders will grow in the borders from year 

 to year, becoming very robust, and producing plenty of buds ; 

 but these sometimes fail to open for want of strong sunshine, 

 which these plants greatly need. If grown in tubs, however, 

 lifting them into the greenhouse in November, the plants 

 should be given the sunniest position, with their buds near 

 the glass, in March, when the flowers will open satisfactorily 

 during the summer. They need an abundance of tepid water 

 during the spring and summer, with a rich top-dressing, too, 

 yearly ; but in winter they should be kept quite cool, and 

 fairly dry. Pruning is only necessary when the plants 

 become too tall and leggy ; they should then be cut down 

 to about a foot from the ground in February ; but they will 

 not flower (after pruning) for eighteen months, as their fresh 

 growths need to be ripened in the open air during the autumn 

 months before they will produce bloom. There is a foolish 

 idea prevalent in the matter of pruning oleanders which 

 requires correction ; it is often advised to cut off from the 

 central spray of blossom the three young growths surround- 

 ing it, which are produced at the same time ; these, however, 

 are full of embryo bloom, and represent the natural increase 

 of the shrub, so that, in removing them, the plant is put out 

 of shape, and prevented from flowering for eighteen months ; 

 whilst the idea that the flowers will not open if these shoots 

 are retained is altogether erroneous. Blight and want of 

 water and food or of sunshine are the real causes of failure 

 to bloom in these plants. 



