JANUARY 285 



stable stuff and charred refuse ; they have now been 

 planted for four years, and have made splendid 

 clumps. The flowering of a paeony depends 

 entirely upon the strength of the stool, and there 

 is no plant in the garden which benefits by top 

 dressing more than this. 



I have looked through all the chrysanthemum 

 plants which have been turned into the frames as 

 they went out of bloom, and have kept back two 

 of each variety from which to propagate, consigning 

 all the rest to the rubbish heap. We keep these 

 stools as cool as possible, and it must be a hard 

 winter that entails their being left in the green- 

 house for propagating, our frames being well pro- 

 tected except from severe and long-continued cold. 

 The colder the young plants are kept, short of 

 actual frost, the better they will be, and I can only 

 recollect one winter when I lost them from frost- 

 bite ; the following autumn the results were not 

 appreciably less, for cuttings taken in February 

 and March, if the early ones fail, prove quite as 

 satisfactory in the end to the amateur who does 

 .not go in for showing. We are striking about 

 four cuttings round the sides of four-inch pots; and 

 as soon as the plants show signs of growth they 

 will be separately potted in three-inch size, and 

 given a shift as often as they require it until 

 their final move in June. Seeds are being 

 sown of various late-blooming things, such as snap- 

 dragons, tobacco plants, dianthuses, and other 

 flowers which may be wanted in the summer to 

 fill gaps in the borders and carry the blossoming 

 season into the autumn months. I have succeeded 



