IN MY LADY'S GARDEN 



moist (though not soaked, whilst already damp), and 

 covered with a piece of glass in a temperature of about 60, 

 allowing air, however, at the corners, for ventilation is 

 necessary for all germination. The box should stand in a 

 slightly shaded position, and the young plants may be given 

 more air as soon as they are up, potting each up singly in a 

 small thumb-pot as soon as its corm attains the size of a pea. 

 Cyclamens should be kept growing steadily, repotting them 

 as their roots reach the bottom of the pot to the next size 

 several times as they require it, and keeping them under 

 glass with a moist atmosphere, and in a partially shaded 

 position, until the flowers appear, the corms being invariably 

 placed on the surface of the soil, the base only being covered. 

 Button's Salmon Queen cyclamen and Carter's Perfection 

 are both remarkably good strains, producing many first-rate 

 plants from a packet of seed ; but in every case there will be 

 a few which are not so good as the rest, and these should be 

 discarded, keeping only those seedlings of which the flowers 

 are of perfect shape. After blooming the cyclamens should 

 be kept rather dry (but not absolutely so) in the greenhouse 

 until June, when they can be plunged in the open air to ripen 

 their corms, potting them up in July or August just as fresh 

 growths appear. The soil which suits them best is a com- 

 post of good turfy loam, with half the quantity of oak-leaf 

 mould, and a little charcoal, soot, and sand, with abundant 

 drainage, and this mixture should be carefully cleared from 

 all insect life, for many grubs are specially partial to the 

 corms of cyclamen. It is a good plan to heat the soil 

 thoroughly over a fire before using it, or else to allow it 

 to become quite dry, when all insects will leave it. 



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