148 PRACTICAL FLORICULTURE. 



December, and January, the bulbs should be kept dry, and 

 planted by the first or middle of August. These, of course, 

 must be grown in the hot-house or green-house, as the 

 Tuberose is a plant requiring at all times a high tempera- 

 ture. 



To give a gradual succession it has been our own prac- 

 tice for the past four years to plant the dry bulbs on the 

 green-house benches on July 20th, August 5th, and August 

 20th, the last lot coming in about Christmas. 



Another plan now very extensively practiced by our 

 "New York florists, to produce flowers from February to 

 May, to succeed and precede those planted from the dry 

 bulbs, is to lift the strongest growing bulbs that can be 

 selected from the patch in fall before frost. They are dug 

 up carefully, first detaching all side shoots, so that a good 

 ball of soil adheres to the root. They are then either 

 planted in pots 7 or 8 inches in diameter, or planted at 

 once on the benches of the hot-house in 6 inches of well- 

 prepared soil, at about 5 or 6 inches apart. They are then 

 shaded and freely watered for a few days, until they have 

 struck out roots sufficient to sustain them without wilt- 

 ing. So long as the weather continues mild, the protec- 

 tion of the glass will be sufliciently warm for them at 

 night; but on the approach of colder weather, firing must 

 be resorted to, and continued, so that the temperature shall 

 at no time fall lower than 50 at night, and the nearer 

 that it can be kept to 60, as an average, the better. It 

 will be understood that under these benches on which 

 the Tuberoses are planted run the pipes or flues, so 

 that the temperature of the soil in which they are growing 

 is usually 5 degrees higher than the atmosphere of the hot- 

 house at night, which is one of the main features of suc- 

 cess in forcing the Tuberose. Great care is necessary in 

 airing, which should not be done until the atmosphere of 

 the house is at 70, and the nearer that point can be 

 kept to during the day the better; above all things any 



