ON MANURING 45 



placed in conditions favourable to a healthy growth, in 

 which a proper balance is maintained between the develop- 

 ment of flowers and foliage. The enrichment of the soil 

 with large quantities of farmyard or stable manure, as 

 in the preparation of beds for cactus, fancy, and show 

 varieties to be grown for the production of blooms for 

 exhibition, is unnecessary and undesirable. As in the case 

 of the other sections when grown for garden decoration, 

 the soil should receive only a moderate dressing of well- 

 decayed manure in the course of the winter and be then 

 deeply dug, care being taken to well mix the manure with 

 the soil in the process. This much will be necessary for 

 maintaining a moderately vigorous growth throughout the 

 season, but an excess of manure would encourage undue 

 vigour at the expense of flower-production. It is advisable 

 that strong plants well established in 5-inch or 6-inch pots 

 be selected for planting because of their coming into bloom 

 early and thus prolonging the flowering season. 



Complaints are sometimes made of the fleeting character 

 of the flowers of the single varieties. It must be admitted 

 that they do not retain their freshness for so long a period 

 as the double forms, but they are not so ephemeral as is 

 generally supposed to be the case. The length of time that 

 the flowers when cut will retain their freshness is much a 

 matter of treatment. They are too often cut when fully 

 developed or after having been subjected to several hours' 

 sunshine, and they collapse within a comparatively short 

 period of their being arranged in the vases or other re- 

 ceptacles. The proper course is to cut the flowers quite 

 early in the day, and before they are fully open, and to 

 place the ends of the stalks in water immediately they are. 



