42 AZALEA CULTURE. 



grafted with fine round heads by pinching the young shoots 

 and keeping them up to one straight stem. 



Of all plants I grow, and of all methods of increasing 

 them, there is none so interesting as grafting the young 

 Azalea. It is so easily performed, and with such great suc- 

 cess, that there is seldom found a dead one in five hundred. 



Keep a supply of plants on hand of the white 

 variety named Indica Alba, .to use as a stock on which to 

 graft, or the variety named Phoenicia, which makes equally 

 as good a stock to graft upon. I prefer Indica Alba, for the 

 reason that the plants are always valuable, while those of 



. *t 4 



Phoenicia are worthless as regards flowers. 



By keeping a few of these stocks on hand the grower 

 will have a quick way of getting a supply of any new kind 

 which may be introduced. 



Most of our new varieties of Azaleas are imported from 

 Europe. 



It is the aim of all importers and growers of this plant 

 to get the new kind propagated early by means of grafting. 

 This can be done if the stocks are in condition, and there 

 is young wood on the newly-imported variety. By the 

 process of grafting, plants can be in condition to sell in six 

 weeks after tho parent plants have been imported. 



These small grafted plants, with probably one inch of 

 the new kind on the stock growing, will oftentimes com- 

 mand a higher price than those of the older varieties three 

 and four years old. 



It is not the size or age that causes them to sell at a high 

 figure, but it is some new variety that has never been in 

 our collection. 



