AND COXSERYATORT. 117 



are fairly up tliey must be carefully pricked out into boxes or 

 pans, and when they have grown a little be potted separately 

 in sixties. From first to last, alter they leave the seed pans, 

 they should be grown in turfy loam, with about a fourth of 

 rotten hotbed manure added. There is nothing better for them 

 than loam from the stack, as described in Chapter IV. It 

 should be well chopped up, but should be rather lumpy. Keep 

 them close after potting, but give them air as soon as they 

 have begun to grow again, and as soon as they have filled the 

 60-size pots with roots shift them into five-iuch pots. They 

 must be wintered in a greenhouse, very near the glass, and be 

 very cautiously watered, until the days begin to lengthen 

 rapidly. Beware of the sudden bursts of sunshine that occur 

 in the spring and shade them slightly, or they will suffer, and 

 beware, also, of using any more fire heat than is necessary to 

 protect them from frost. 



If the plants are strong shift tbem into eight-inch pots in 

 February, and be especially careful in watering for a few 

 weeks afterwards. As the flower-stalks make their appearance 

 support them with neat sticks. Plants intended for large speci- 

 mens for the following year should have their flowers removed 

 immediately the size, shape, and colour of them can be seen, 

 be kept coo] all the summer, and shifted into larger pots in 

 autumn, early enough to fill the pots with roots before winter. 

 More care in watering is necessary the second winter than the 

 first. These will probably require tying out before the flowers 

 make their appearance. It must be done with care, for the 

 side shoots easily snap oft', and then the shape of the plant is 

 completely spoilt. 



AVhen grown from cuttings the treatment is the same as 

 seedlings after the cuttings are rooted. They are easily struck 

 in a cold frame if taken ofl' as soon as they are large enough, 

 and kept close and shady. The cuttings should, of course, be 

 taken from the very best varieties and from plants which 

 have not been allowed to ripen seed. Shade when the plants 

 are in bloom ; and, lastly, on the first sign of there being a 

 single green-fly on them give the house or pit a thorough 

 smoking with good tobacco paper. On no account let the 

 green-fly or red-spider get ahead, for they soon ruin the plants, 

 and it is an extremely difficult matter to destroy them ; for 

 tliey shelter themselves underneath the leaves. 



The " shrubby" section is chiefly valued for bedding pur- 



