CULTURE OF TUBEROSA. 47 



tent, the broken manure, and thereby allow of consolidation, by firm pressure 

 upon the top surface ; I watch closely for offsets, and as they appear split them 

 off by inserting my thumb between them and the parent, thus keeping the 

 strength where it is wanted. My practice is to retain them in the pots, and 

 keep the pots together in the hot-bed, unless they become so tall as to interfere 

 with the sashes. Keeping them in pots is preferable to turning them out ; 

 not only because I can control the supply of water, but because I can move 

 them at pleasure. When blossoms begin to appear, I remove them to my 

 grape-arbor, to secure shade to some extent, and thus preserve the natural 

 delicacy of the flowers. On the approach of frosty weather, they can be 

 housed without the shock they would suffer from "lifting and potting." If 

 kept neatly tied to rods they are not unacceptable to the parlor. 



By a succession of plantings, a long season of bloom is secured. I find by 

 my journal of garden operations, that I this year planted on the eighth and 

 twenty-fifth of April, and the twelfth of May, and had an uninterrupted season 

 of bloom from twentieth of July to tenth of November. 



Who shall say the end does not warrant the means? If any one is unwil- 

 ling to devote the amount of labor to the culture of so delightful an exotic, it 

 is either because he knows of a better way, or is unworthy a better flower than 

 a " tare," that will grow while the "husbandman sleeps." If any better mode 

 of treatment for it in this climate can be given, I shall be most happy to know 

 and adopt it. And if, on the other hand, these hints shall awaken any inter- 

 est, or enable any one to reap from the sweet " City flower" a tithe of the 

 pleasure I annually enjoy in its society, I am repaid and content. 



