138 



Commercial Gardening 



and covered with bell-glasses until rooted. The best kinds are: elatior, 

 with rose-red flowers in dense clusters; heterophylla (fig. 267), bright red; 

 megastigma, brown and yellow; polygalcefolia, rosy lilac; and serrulata, 

 deep rose. They are sweet-scented, and flower during the winter season. 



Bougainvillea. There are several species, natives of tropical and 

 subtropical America, the best known being glabra, speciosa, Sanderiana, 

 and spectabilis all remarkable for the large and conspicuous rosy-mauve 

 bracts surrounding the narrow tubular flowers. The plants are usually 

 grown as climbers, or over wire balloons, but they may be grown as bushy 

 pot plants. They flourish in a mixture of sandy loam and peat, and are 

 easily raised from cuttings of the half-ripened shoots inserted in sandy 

 soil, and plunged in a hotbed with brisk bottom heat. When in flower 

 the effect of the floral bracts is gorgeous, and of late years plants have 

 become popular for the open flower border during the summer months. 

 A good variety called " Maud Cheddleburgh " has appeared of late years. 



Bouvardia. Some few years ago Bouvardias were grown in very 

 large numbers for market, some growers disposing of as many as 20,000 



to 30,000 plants annually. Owing 

 to competition from other plants, 

 however, Bouvardia culture is now 

 more restricted. The white-flowered 

 kinds, like the old Mexican jas- 

 miniflora (fig. 268), candidissima, 

 Hwmboldti, and Vreelandi amongst 

 the singles, and Alfred Neuner 

 amongst the doubles, are particu- 

 larly useful for floral work, and 

 often find their way into wreaths, 

 bouquets, crosses, &c.; while the 

 scarlets, like Dazzler, Hogarth, 

 Scarlet Prince, and Vulcan, and 

 President Cleveland, crimson all 

 single-flowered are also sold as 

 cut in quantity as well as on the 

 plants. Perhaps the best double 

 scarlet is Hogarth flore pleno. 



Bouvardias are grown as green- 

 house plants, but are quite hardy 

 enough for bedding out during the summer months in the milder parts 

 of the country. Unsold plants or those kept for stock are planted out 

 by market growers. In early autumn they are lifted carefully and 

 potted up for the production of blossom during the winter season. 

 Stock is increased from cuttings of the young shoots developed from 

 old cut-down plants in the same way as Fuchsias. They are generally 

 started in February, being inserted in pots filled with sandy soil and 

 placed in a close frame. The cuttings root in a few weeks, and are 



Fig. 268. Bouvardia jasminijlora 



