844 



PRACTICE OF GARDENING. 



PART III. 



pear. The plants are then removed to the green-house or the open air, or to halls or 

 churches, as in Italy, where the cooler temperature procures a prolonged bloom. 



6324. Culture to produce flowering roots. The following is the process followed by Salisbury, by which 

 he produced, for many years, in the open air at Chapel Allerton, flowering bulbs equal to those imported. 

 The situation he preferred was a dry warm border ; in this he made an excavation two or three feet deep, 

 and of any convenient length and width ; about the middle of April, he filled this pit with fresh stable- 

 dung, and covered it with light sandy earth ; then, on the bed so formed, the small lateral roots, or 

 those from foreign bulbs, or from those which had flowered in this country the preceding year, and been 

 preserved through the winter in sand, were planted at five inches' distance every way, the upper part of 

 the tuber being just covered with earth. The bed was protected from nightly frosts and heavy rains, 

 little or no water was given, but when the leaves we.re an inch long, a little fresh compost was added to 

 the surface. In June and July, when the leaves were in full vigor, it was watered copiously after warm 

 days ; but in autumn and the beginning of winter, it was carefully protected from heavy rains. In the 

 beginning of December, the decayed leaves being removed, the bed was thatched over a foot thick with 

 dry straw, sloping it well to throw off the wet ; or covered with a frame and litter. In February the roots 

 were taken up, preserving their fibres, and packed in dry sand in a cellar where the cold could not pene- 

 trate, till April, when their fibres being shortened in proportion to their decay, and all the offsets except- 

 ing one or two on each bulb being removed, they were replanted as before. A few strong roots flowered 

 in this second year. In the succeeding winter the bed was thatched as before, and in February the roots 

 were taken up for forcing, or any of the purposes for which tuberose-roots are grown. By this process 

 bulbs were produced equal, if not superior, to those imported ; and therefore .the author thinks their cul- 

 ture might become an object to the commercial gardener, especially in the southern counties near the sea, 

 and in the vicinity of London. The great object, he says, is to obtain " a sufficient degree of heat in 

 summer to bring their leaves out to their full magnitude, that of the roots following of course. The 

 theory," he adds, " which I would recommend any intelligent gardener to adopt in its general manage- 

 ment is, to keep the roots growing as vigorously as possible from May to October, but in a state of com- 

 plete rest and drought for the remainder of the year." (Hort. Trans, i. 53.) 



SUBSECT. 13. Pceony. P&onia, L. Polyand. Digynia, L. and Ranunculace&, J. 

 Pivoine, Fr. ; P'donie, Ger. ; and Peonia, Ital. 



6325. Most of the species of peeony introduced in this country may be considered 

 as select flowers ; but that which has been longest cultivated is the P. offidnalis (Sot. 

 Mag. 1784.) The roots are composed of roundish tubers, the stalks of the leaves rise 

 between two and three feet high, and terminate in large red or purple flowers, which 

 appear in May. The leaves are composed of many unequal lobes, variously cut into 

 many segments. It is a native of Switzerland, Dauphine, and other parts of Europe, 

 and also of China and Japan ; and was cultivated here in 1562. The roots were for- 

 merly much used in medicine. 



6326. Varieties. Originally the common paeony was said to be of two sorts, male and 

 female, the flowers of the former being smaller and lighter colored than those of the 

 latter. These distinctions, which had no sexual allusion in this case, the pa?ony being 

 hermaphrodite, are now laid aside, and the varieties of P. offidnalis have been reduced 

 by Sabine (Hort. Trans, ii. 273.) to the following : 



The double red; the most common, and 

 formerly highly prized; being, when 

 introduced at Antwerp, near 250 years 

 ago, sold for twelve crowns. 



The double flesh-colored 

 The double white 

 The double fringed 

 The double white Chinese 



The double sweet-scented Chinese 



Trans, vol. ii.pl. 18.) J 

 Whitlev's double white Chinese. 



(Hort. 



6327. Propagation and culture. By seed from the single and semi-double sorts for new species, and by 

 dividing the roots for ordinary purposes. Miller directs to sow the seeds which ripen in September, im- 

 mediately afterwards in light fresh earth, covering them half an inch. They will come up the following 

 spring, and may remain in the seed-bed two years before they are transplanted, sifting a little rich earth 

 over them when the leaves decay at the end of the growing season. Having made two years' growth in 

 the seed-bed, they are to be transplanted in September into other well prepared beds of light fresh earth, 

 and placed six inches asunder every way, and three inches deep. Here they are to remain till they 

 flower, which is generally the fourth or fifth summer after sowing. 



6328. Full-grown roots are readily propagated by parting, taking care to preserve a bud on the crown of 

 each offset The plants are very hardy ; they will grow in almost any soil and situation, and even under 

 the shade of trees, where, Miller says, they continue longest in beauty. They are chiefly planted in flower. 



.borders, and form a splendid ornament both to the parterre and shrubbery. 



SUBSECT. 14. Daltlia. Dahlia superflua and D. frustranea, H. K. (Cav. Ic. i. t. 80. 

 and 266.) Polyg. Super. L. and Corymbi/erce. J. 



6329. The roots of the dahlia are tuberous and fasciculated ; the stems rise from five 

 to eight feet, covered with large compound leaves, resembling those of the common 

 dwarf elder, and with side branches bearing numerous flowers of a great variety of 

 colors, which appear in August, and continue till destroyed by frost. The plant grows 

 wild in Mexico, in sandy meadows, and was sent to Madrid in 1789, and thence to 

 England in the same year ; but the plants being lost, seeds were reintroduced by Lady 

 Holland in 1 804, and from these and some plants imported from France during the 

 peace of 1814, the present extensive stock of dahlias has originated. Till this last 

 period they were much more cultivated in France and Germany than in England, and 

 more especially by the Count Lelieur, at Paris, and Otto, at Berlin. At present the 

 dahlia is the most fashionable flower in this country, and the extent of its culture in some 

 of the nurseries, especially that of Lee, is truly astonishing. Nor is this to be won- 

 dered at, as Sabine observes, for, independently of the great beauty and diversity of thr 



