32 QUALITIES OF PINKS. 



side. Pinch off the smaller bud, which would 

 only weaken its companion. Keep the plants free 

 from decayed leaves, and gently stir the earth round 

 them occasionally with your small trowel. This 

 operation refreshes them. Stake them neatly, that 

 they may not fall prostrate after rain. 



If you wish to preserve any particular pink, let 

 it grow in a pot, or upon a raised platform, that it 

 may be placed beyond the reach of hares, rabbits, 

 or poultry, and be more easily sheltered from long 

 and severe frost or rains in winter, and from the 

 dry heats in summer, either of which destroys the 

 beauty of the flower. The pots can be sunk in the 

 ground in fine weather. Do not hide your pinks 

 among larger flowers ; let them be distinctly seen. 

 If you water pinks too much, their roots become rot- 

 ten ; and if you suffer them to be to dry, they be- 

 come diseased. Beware of extremes. The best 

 rule is to keep them just moist. A fine pink should 

 not have sharp-pointed flower leaves ; they should 

 be round and even at their edges, and the colors 

 should be well defined, not running one into the 

 other. The flower should be large ; it should pos- 

 sess a great many leaves, and form a sort of dome. 

 Piping and slipping is the most expiditious mode 

 of propagating plants from any selected pink. 



Pan.sies, violets, &c. are very easily propagated 

 by parting the roots when the flowers are past. 

 Pansies are very beautiful flowers ; and cuttings of 

 their young shoots will grow very freely if kept 

 moist and shaded for some little time. By refresh- 

 ing the soil every year, you insure large flowers. 

 Pansies and violets bloom early in the spring. 



Hepaticas must be parted like violets. They ap- 

 pear so very early in the year, that no garden should 



