CHOROZEMA. 



1C* 



CHOROZEMA. 



They are not very difficult to manage, 

 and are alike useful for decoration and 

 as cut flowers for bouquets, at a time 

 when such flowers are valuable. They 

 delight in a rich turfy peat, mixed with 

 fibrous loam and leaf-mould and gritty 

 sand. When recently potted, they require 

 a close pit or the warm part of a green 

 house, and cautious watering, until they 

 get into free growth. When thoroughly 

 established, water with clear liquid manure 

 twice a week. 



Propagation. Chorozemas are propa- 

 gated by cuttings of the half-ripened young 

 wood, taking off in July or August, taking 

 (he short, stiff, or weaker medium growth, 

 but avoiding twigs of a robust habit. 

 These, after being trimmed, should be 

 about one inch long, and must be inserted 

 in sand, under protection of a bulb-glass. 

 In preparing the pots for the cuttings, 

 take care to drain thoroughly, by half 

 filling them with potsherd ; then place 

 fibrous peat about an inch deep over the 

 drainage, and fill up with clean sand. 

 After the cuttings are in, place the pots in 

 a close cold-frame, water when necessary, 

 and wipe the condensed moisture from the 

 inside of the glass twice or thrice a week. 

 Here the cuttings must remain until they 

 are cicatrised, when they may be removed 

 to a wanner situation, and the pots plunged 

 in a very slight bottom heat, and in a few 

 weeks they will be ready to pot off. If it 

 is late in the season before the cuttings are 

 ready to pot oft", they should remain in the 

 cutting pots through the winter, and be 

 potted off in February ; but if they are 

 ready for single pots in September, they 

 will be much benefited by being potted oft 

 early. 



Soil, Potting, &*<:. Having selected 

 dwarf, healthy, bushy, well-rooted speci- 

 mens from your stock of young plants, 

 prepare the following compost : Rich 

 fibrous peat, two parts ; leaf mould, one 



part ; rich turfy loam, two parts ; clean 

 potsherd and charcoal, broken to the size 

 of horse beans, one part ; with sufficient 

 gritty sand to make the whole, when 

 mixed, light and porous. Having prepared 

 this compost, examine the root of each 

 plant, and if it be strong and healthy, 

 prepare for its reception a pot two sizes 

 larger than that in which it has been 

 growing, and proceed to pot, placing some 

 of the roughest part of the compost over 

 the drainage, and fill up with the finer 

 soil. 



Management. After potting, place them 

 in a close frame or pit, taking care to 

 ventilate freely ; but keep a moist atmos- 

 phere, and shut up for an hour or two 

 every evening, and open it again before 

 retiring for the night. Attention must 

 be paid to stopping the rude shoots, so 

 as to induce close compact, and healthy 

 growth. If the plants progress as they 

 ought, they will require a second shift 

 during the season. The plants should be 

 kept growing until the winter fairly sets 

 in, at which time they should be brought 

 to a state of rest. In the second 

 year some of the plants will have a nice 

 head of bloom ; but in order to produce 

 rapid growth, remove the bloom-buds 

 when quite young, and keep the plants 

 vigorously growing through the second 

 season. If the plant is in good health and 

 the pot full of roots, a shift any time 

 between Christmas and October will not 

 hurt them ; never shift a plant until the 

 pot is full of vigorous roots, and also take 

 especial care that the roots do not become 

 matted before you shift. 



Manure Water. Manure-water in a 

 weak state may be used with advantage ; 

 but use it with caution, and not more than 

 twice a week. That prepared from sheep's 

 dung and soot is best, and it must be used 

 in a perfectly clear state. 



Treatment for Red Spider and Mil- 



