24 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1880. 



pervading, but never overpowering. Probably no class of plants 

 is more profuse in gay flowers of nearly all shades of color than 

 the Azalea Indica. In the summer time it is best kept in pots in 

 peaty soil in the open air, where it sets and matures its flower 

 buds for wititer use. Hence all the strength is stored away be- 

 forehand, as is the case with hyacinths and other Dutch bulbs. 

 You have only to develop the flowers in winter by a gradual 

 process and the result is certain, complete and superb. The 

 same is true of camellias, only they are a little more difficult to 

 manage and are more sensitive to the heat and dryness of a room. 

 The effect of an orange tree, well loaded with fruit, is very 

 striking. The fruit begins to ripen in the fall and will hold until 

 March, when the tree throws its blossoms and fills the air witli 

 its delicious fragrance. It is of easiest culture and well adapted 

 to the house. I might wander on and weary your patience with 

 an almost endless list of plants, but to what profit ? Let me 

 rather turn upon one of my hobbies, and saj' a few words in 

 conclusion upon the winter culture of the Rose. 



Why is it that there is such poor success in forcing roses in pots ? 

 Perhaps I have asked a very foolish question in this audience. 

 Perhaps you can produce tine specimens of Safrano and Bon 

 Silene, and Isabella Sprunt and Niplietos, or possibly the more 

 diflficult Devoniensis or Souvenir de la Malmaison, or even the 

 MarechalNeil. Well, I am glad if you can. I should like to come 

 and see hoM'^ you do it. Still I think it is true in the experience 

 of most, that the house-culture of these varieties is not usually 

 satisfactory in its results. The plants are generally weak in 

 growth, and give few and feeble blooms. It is true that the air 

 of our rooms is not favorable for the vigorous growth of the rose. 

 It is so warm that the growth starts too quickly ; it is so dry that 

 red spider is likely to draw all the life from the leaves. These 

 difficulties you who love and watch your plants can and will 

 overcome. And yet the}'' do not bloom as you feel sure they 

 would if all their wants were satisfied. This experience of yours 

 in the house-culture of the ever-blooming varieties, the Teas and 

 Noisettes, is precisely the same as the gardeners are passing 

 through in the winter-forcing of tlie hardy perpetual varieties in 

 the greenhouses. Ever-blooming kinds they know how to force, 

 but why is it, they ask, that when they start their hardy kinds, 

 they break weak, and the young shoots, though they grow rapidly, 

 do not show flowers ? The reasons are probably the same in both 

 cases and are two-fold. First of all, the plants have been started 

 too rapidly and have developed at the top before the roots have 

 become sufficiently active to sustain and iinpel the growth. 



This quick starting is sure to cause the bust prepared plants of 



