MALMAISONS " 39 



large for the colour to be affected, flowers of deep 

 colour being impossible unless the shade is thick enough 

 to intercept every ray of sun. The cultivator has to 

 make up his mind early in the year whether the stem 

 shall carry one bloom only, or perhaps four or five, 

 which will be found an ample crop, and, acting on this 

 determination, reduce the buds to any of these numbers 

 directly they are large enough to manipulate. Large 

 blooms five and a half to six and a half inches across, 

 borne on long stems, are most often secured by the 

 " one plant, one bloom " system. It is also beneficial to 

 reduce the young shoots to five or six on each plant, 

 though, in the case of plants being grown to produce 

 bloom in winter and spring, no shoots, unless those that 

 are weakly, should be removed. Moreover, the latter 

 ought to have stakes inserted just inside the pots, one for 

 each shoot to be tied to. If there is no other affection or 

 affliction, there will certainly be aphis, unless unremitting 

 attention is bestowed in preventing its appearance. This 

 and other matters of a kindred nature is treated of in 

 Chapter XI. 



We shall now follow the fortunes of those plants that 

 were potted into nine-inch pots, the young shoots of which 

 have been tied to stakes, and which, after being cleaned 

 and the old flower-stems removed, require the attention 

 of the cultivator to induce the production of bloom during 

 the off-season. If properly managed, the more forward of 

 these will produce flowering-stems during autumn, but the 

 larger proportion in spring. Up till October the whole 

 should be stood in a structure where abundance of air 

 circulates about the plants. From September shading 

 should be discontinued, while as regards the application 

 of water the soil must be preserved in a healthily moist 

 condition, but never either quite dry or, on the other 

 hand, saturated. From November till March those in 3 



