THE HEART OF THE YEAR 



flower the first week in November. It is perhaps scarcely July 

 necessary to say that this process of stopping and bud ^^31 

 selection is not developed to anything like the same 

 extent in the case of plants which are grown as bushes, 

 to produce abundance of small flowers instead of two or 

 three large ones. True, the young plants may be pinched 

 once or twice in spring to make them compact, but there 

 need be no elaborate manipulation ; " breaks " and 

 "crowns" can both be ignored. Instead of the mid- 

 season shoots being pinched out, they should be allowed 

 to extend, and in due course they will produce flowers. 

 The blossoms will be small, and of no use for forming 

 prize stands, but there will be a great many of them, and 

 they will be charming for vases in the house. 



Lifting and dividing Daffodils. — Narcissi and Daffodils 

 will have completed their growth by now, and may be 

 taken up for division. There will be large bulbs and 

 small in the clumps — bulbs large enough to give good 

 flowers next year, and bulbs which will not bloom until 

 the second year. The sizes can be separated, as it is 

 convenient to know, when planting, what bulbs can be 

 relied upon to bloom. It is difficult to advise as to the 

 exact sizes, because the varieties differ a great deal in 

 size of bulb, and what would be a large bulb for Poeticus 

 would be a small one for Sir Watkin. It will be safe to 

 assume that all bulbs equal to two-thirds the size of the 

 largest flowering bulb will bloom the following year. 

 Bulb dealers necessarily dry and store their bulbs, but 

 amateurs need not do so, they may replant at once, and 

 the deeper, the moister the soil the more likely the 

 plants are to do well. Strong bulbs may be forced in 

 pots or boxes. 



Improving Annuals. — The earlier kinds of annuals will 

 have been flowering for some time now, and a critical 

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