148 PRACTICAL' FLORICULTURE. 



CHAPTER XXX. 

 THE CULTIVATION OF THE VERBENA. 



This would seem to require a special chapter. Compar 

 atively few florists have success in growing it, and as 1 

 have grown it successfully for upwards of thirty years, I 

 have confidence, if the instructions here given are strictly 

 followed, that it can be successfully grown anywhere and 

 by any one. The principal trouble in growing the Ver- 

 bena is, to prevent it from being attacked by the insect 

 which produces the black rust, or Verbena disease, as it 

 is sometimes called. I will make the starting point the 

 first of April. At that date take cuttings from healthy 

 plants ; see that they are taken in the condition described 

 in the chapter on Propagation that is, that they are in 

 such a state that they will break on being bent. They will 

 root fit to be potted off in eight or ten days, and will be 

 fine, healthy plants to put in the open ground in thirty 

 days after. Verbenas are not at all particular about soil, 

 provided it is not water-soaked ; we have planted them 

 on soils varying from almost pure sand to heavy clay, 

 and, provided it was enriched by manure, there was but 

 little difference in the growth or bloom. Planted out in 

 May, by August they will have spread to an extent of 

 three feet, the plants profusely covered with flowers and 

 seed-pods. Now at this time, say the middle of August, 

 this profuse flowering and seeding of course lessens the 

 vitality of the plant and puts it in the condition to invite 

 the attack of the insect which causes the rust. To sus- 

 tain the vitality of the plant and recuperate its exhausted 

 forces, we cut back the extremities of the shoots some six 

 inches, in all plants from which we design to propagate, 

 free the plants of decayed leaves, and thin out where too 

 thick at the center, Then we fork up the soil around each 



