82 THE UNHEATED GREENHOUSE 



cultivation of which most possessors of a greenhouse have 

 attempted, an effort to grow others may not appear quite so 

 formidable. At any rate, some of them are so well adapted 

 to the cold greenhouse that they are worth any pains that can 

 be taken with them. By way of parenthesis it may be as well 

 to remind the unbotanical reader that Azaleas are now ranged 

 under the generic name of Rhododendron, a change which is 

 rather puzzling until one gets used to it, for writers in garden 

 literature are now taking into use the more accurate term ; 

 but for gardening purposes the old name of Azalea is too 

 firmly fixed in popular speech to be easily discarded and 

 therefore is retained here. 



To begin with, the well-known Azalea indica, which always 

 suggests a hot-house, is by no means greatly addicted to heat. 

 Large bushes in perfect health and flowering freely may be 

 found growing in the open air in many parts of the country ; 

 yet they must be set down with most of the other plants 

 which come under this heading as belonging to the half- 

 hardy class that are grateful for protection from actual frost, 

 chiefly because their fragile flowers are easily spoilt by bad 

 weather, and besides, for the greenhouse we want flowers 

 before their due season. To induce them, therefore, to open 

 their buds during winter or spring, as the case may be, they 

 must be specially treated. Azaleas set their flowers so early 

 in the autumn that we can safely predict the amount of flower 

 to be expected from them. This process once accomplished, 

 for which it is necessary that the wood be well ripened in the 

 open air during the summer, it is mainly a question of bringing 

 the plants into snugger quarters, earlier or later, according to 

 the time they will be required. 



The greater number of the Azaleas we see in our green- 

 houses have been reared in Belgium, where the process of 

 grafting is carried on systematically on a large scale. I gained 

 a great deal of practical information a year or two ago through 



