62 PRESENT-DAY GARDENING 



thing like dry, to prevent which, some gardeners stand the 

 seed-pot in a saucer in which a little water is always kept. 



The seeds germinate in a few weeks, the seedlings being 

 at first very minute ; as soon as they can be handled, they 

 should be pricked off in pans or boxes of sandy peat. 

 After a few weeks under the same conditions, the seedlings 

 will be ready to be placed in a close frame, where they 

 should be regularly sprinkled with water and shaded in 

 bright weather. When they are about a year old, they 

 should be large enough to be planted in a nursery bed ; or, 

 if they are choice or tender, planted singly in small pots, 

 although there is an objection to the use of pots for plants 

 at this stage, as the soil in them is likely to get dry. 

 Drought at any stage is almost as bad for Rhododendrons 

 as it is for fish. There is less danger in the other extreme 

 of excessive moisture, provided the soil keeps sweet and 

 the plants are not always under water. 



Young seedling Rhododendrons make rapid progress 

 when they are planted out ; pot treatment is therefore a 

 mistake, unless there is an exceptional reason for it. 



Rhododendron ponticum is almost universally used as 

 a stock for the hardy evergreen sorts. For this purpose 

 seedling plants are required. These, in places where the 

 species is common, may often be collected in the neigh- 

 bourhood of the old plants ; generally, however, they are 

 raised artificially, the seeds being sown in a little warmth 

 in February. The seedlings, when large enough to be 

 handled, are pricked out in pans or shallow boxes of fine, 

 peaty soil, and kept in frames for a few weeks until the end 

 of July, when they are placed in the open, preferably under 

 the shade of a hedge or wall, until the beginning of 

 September. They may then be transplanted in beds in 



