AZALEAS AND HEATHS. 177 



January, if covered up by sash and mats so as to exclude 

 the frost, or they may be sown in August or September 

 and grown in pots and flowered in a cold green-house 

 during the winter months. 



These are grown to a considerable extent as specimen 

 green-house plants, propagated from the young wood in 

 March ; potted and planted out in the open ground in May 

 they make fine plants by fall, but most of the varieties do 

 not bloom freely until the second year. The Azalea is a 

 plant having very fine roots, and consequently requires a 

 soil composed largely of leaf mould or peat to grow to the 

 best advantage. There are now several hundred sorts, 

 many of them of great beauty. They are not considered a 

 suitable plant for bouquets, being too loose and flimsy in 

 texture, but are used to some extent in baskets and vases of 

 flowers, particularly the compact and white flowering va- 

 rieties. 



A few of the free-growing winter flowering varieties of 

 Heaths are well fitted for bouquets; of these Erica gracilis 

 (carmine,) E. persaluta-alba, E. vernalis (pink,) and E. 

 actcea (white) are the best. They are best grown from 

 cuttings of the young wood in March, and if planted out 

 in the open ground in May, in light, sandy loam, will make 

 plants of a size large enough to flower in winter. They 

 are not extensively used however, being less profitable 

 than many other things. The Heath is justly considered 

 as one of the finest of all hard- wooded green-house plants 

 in Europe, but most of the varieties are very difficult to 

 grow in our hot summers, so that all those who have 

 attempted to imitate the splendid specimens seen in 

 the Botanic Gardens of Edinburgh or Dublin, or at the 

 Crystal Palace of London, have completely failed. 



