74 PRESENT-DAY GARDENING 



cuttings in the house to which they were removed from the 

 propagating pit, let this be done ; thus there will not be 

 any risk of a check by exposure to a colder atmosphere. 

 Shade the little plants from bright sunshine until they 

 are established, affording air on every favourable occasion. 

 The next potting will be into 4 and 5 inch pots, and a 

 similar compost to that described already may be employed, 

 except that the loam may be put through a coarser sieve, 

 and the pots must be well drained. At the beginning of 

 May, if all has gone well with the December and January 

 cuttings, they will be ready for their final potting into 6 

 and 7 inch pots. At this potting the compost should con- 

 sist of best loam two parts, chopped up roughly, leaf-mould 

 one part, preferably from two-year-old oak leaves, and old 

 mortar rubble and sand one part. To every barrow-load 

 of compost, add the same quantities of soot, bone-meal, 

 and Veltha Powder as in the former potting, with the 

 addition of a 5-inch potful of Carnation manure. The 

 whole should be thoroughly mixed, and allowed to lie in a 

 heap for a few days at least, before potting. In the earlier 

 pottings the compost is made moderately firm in the pots, 

 using the fingers for the purpose ; but at the final potting, 

 with a free, open compost, such as advised, a rammer, 

 having one end wedge-shaped and the other blunt, may 

 be used to make the soil firm, employing the wedge-shaped 

 end of the rammer to firm the soil round the sides of the 

 pots. Hard-potting is conducive to a short-jointed, firm 

 growth, such as produce the finest flowers. 



Two-year-old Plants. For furnishing the centres of 

 large central stages, one-year-old plants, potted on, are in- 

 valuable the following season. In some varieties, notably 



